HANDS HEADLINES

Please continue to lift us up over the next few weeks and months. There’s no doubt we need it!

There are a few specific requests below, but we always enjoy praying through Scripture, so we’ve given you a few passages you can pray for us. We always know we pray according to God’s will when we pray His Word!

Thanks!

I pray that David & Shannon will delight themselves in You, Lord, knowing that You will give
them the desires of their heart.
–Psalm 37:4

O Lord, remind David & Shannon continually that You alone are their strength, and that it is
You who allows them to accomplish any high and lofty goals.
–Habakkuk 3:19

O Lord, grant that David & Shannon remember often Your deep and abiding love for them,
knowing that they will ultimately be victorious spiritually because You died for them.
–Romans 8:37

Lord, I ask You to help David & Shannon to confess their sins before You, remembering that
You are faithful and just and will cleanse them from sin and forgive them for all
unrighteousness.
–I John 1:9

O God, let David & Shannon always be confident in approaching You, remembering that You
hear their prayers when they ask in accord with Your will. May they always pray this way,
with confidence.
— I John 5:14-15

• As always, pray for our time alone with the Lord. We yearn for and are challenged to find extended quiet time.
• Pray for Shannon as she homeschools Avery while caring for Addison and Toby, too.
• Ask God to support us with encouraging relationships and that He would use us to reach our neighbors.
• Pray for David as he responds to emails from www.EveryStudent.com It’s obvious that many of the students who submit a question to the site have very limited knowledge of the gospel or have been misinformed. There seems to be a real openess with many of them.

Please continue to lift us up over the next few weeks and months. There’s no doubt we need it!

There are a few specific requests below, but we always enjoy praying through Scripture, so we’ve given you a few passages you can pray for us. We always know we pray according to God’s will when we pray His Word!

Thanks!

I pray that David & Shannon will delight themselves in You, Lord, knowing that You will give
them the desires of their heart.
–Psalm 37:4

O Lord, remind David & Shannon continually that You alone are their strength, and that it is
You who allows them to accomplish any high and lofty goals.
–Habakkuk 3:19

O Lord, grant that David & Shannon remember often Your deep and abiding love for them,
knowing that they will ultimately be victorious spiritually because You died for them.
–Romans 8:37

Lord, I ask You to help David & Shannon to confess their sins before You, remembering that
You are faithful and just and will cleanse them from sin and forgive them for all
unrighteousness.
–I John 1:9

O God, let David & Shannon always be confident in approaching You, remembering that You
hear their prayers when they ask in accord with Your will. May they always pray this way,
with confidence.
— I John 5:14-15

• As always, pray for our time alone with the Lord. We yearn for and are challenged to find extended quiet time.
• Pray for Shannon as she homeschools Avery while caring for Addison and Toby, too.
• Ask God to support us with encouraging relationships and that He would use us to reach our neighbors.
• Pray for David as he responds to emails from www.EveryStudent.com It’s obvious that many of the students who submit a question to the site have very limited knowledge of the gospel or have been misinformed. There seems to be a real openess with many of them.

Since I helped created StorySpot.com, I can’t help but comment on this:

Ashley Smith shared her story with Brian Nichols. God used it. He surrendered.

The whole scenario was quite amazing, but what I find most interesting is that God directed Nichols to a woman with a story – precisely the story he needed to hear. Nichols went to a seemingly random apartment complex, confronted and held hostage a seemingly random woman.

Ashley said, “Most of my time was spent talking to this man about my life and experiences in my life, things that had happened to me.”

Four years prior, Ashley’s husband had been murdered. She was at his side when he died.

Recalling the painful details of that day must have moved Nichols. Beyond that, Smith went on to connect the dots for Nichols – showing him that God could redeem his horrible crimes and involve him in a much grander purpose:
“And I just talked with him a little more, just about — about — we pretty much talked about God … what his reason was, why he made it out of there.
I said, “Do you believe in miracles? Because if you don’t believe in miracles — you are here for a reason. You’re here in my apartment for some reason. You got out of that courthouse with police everywhere, and you don’t think that’s a miracle? You don’t think you’re supposed to be sitting here right in front of me listening to me tell you, you know, your reason here?”
I said, “You know, your miracle could be that you need to — you need to be caught for this. You need to go to prison and you need to share the word of God with them, with all the prisoners there.”

Wow. The power of story. Ashley shared how God changed her life. And then invited Nichols to enter into The Story by allowing God to change him too.

After reading the transcript of what Ashley Smith said to reporters yesterday, I think she does.

Smith was held at gunpoint for several hours by Brian Nichols – the man who killed four people after escaping from guards before his trial in an Atlanta courthouse Friday morning.

Authorities had no clue of his whereabouts until early Saturday morning when Smith called police after Nichols let her walk free from her apartment.

Why did he not harm her after killing others? Why did he even choose to approach Smith at her apartment complex in a very populated area? And why did he let her go – knowing she would call police – and then surrender himself without incident?

My pure opinion says that only God could bring such an amazing end to such a violent beginning.

According to Ashley, Nichols become very calm after several hours with her. Not that she wasn’t scared to death, she did want to gain his trust, so she engaged him in conversation. She stated, “But after we began to talk, he said he thought that I was an angel sent from God. . . .And that he was lost and God lead him right to me to tell him that he had hurt a lot of people. And the families — the people — to let him know how they felt, because I had gone through it myself.“ Ashley Smith’s husband had died four years earlier from stab wounds – himself brutally murdered. She spent much of the time sharing her own story with Nichols. Obviously the Lord used her story to impact him.

And, check this out: She also read him passages from the Bible and a devotional book called The Purpose Driven Life!

Ashley Smith said, “He needed hope for his life. He told me that he was already dead. He said, “Look at me, look at my eyes. I am already dead.”
And I said, “You are not dead. You are standing right in front of me. If you want to die, you can. It’s your choice.”But after I started to read to him, he saw — I guess he saw my faith and what I really believed in. And I told him I was a child of God and that I wanted to do God’s will. I guess he began to want to. That’s what I think.”

That’s what I think too, Ashley.

The full transcript is online at CNN.com. It’s pretty amazing.