Sunday, August 30, 2009

Today's Walk With The Lord - God is the BEST Realtor!

Good Morning,

 

As some of you may know, my family and I recently bought a new house, moved into it and then prepared and sold our former house. This was completed in a difficult real estate market and we prayed often.

 

When we found the new house, we fell in love with it and prayed for what to do. We felt led to purchase it, but as soon as we put in our offer in January, we found the house was going to be a short sale and it could take months to find out if the banks will allow us to buy the house at our offering price.

 

Throughout the end of January, all of February and part of March we prayed for an answer from God to whether we should continue to pursue this house or let it go.

 

Then on Friday the 13th of March, in my daily Bible reading I came across a passage which jumped out at me. It was Mark 13:13 which says:

 

“All people will hate you because you follow me, but those people who keep their faith until the end will be saved.”

 

My daily Bible reading also included reading another book which I read a chapter a day from. On that Friday, my reading ended on page 313.

 

That afternoon our realtor, Jenny, called and she told us that we had the house and we could work toward the closing (which happened within 2 weeks of that call). We moved into the new house at the end of April.

 

I was amazed with how God answered our prayers, but He was not done with our real estate needs. We had to put our other house up on the market and it needed some work. It was then that life blindsided us with many challenges including my Mom getting sick and passing away.

 

Our goal was to have the old house up for sale in May, but that quickly became June and before we knew it, we were back into July. Each month cost us about $1,000 to carry both houses.

 

We continued to pray to God to help us sell our house.

 

In all the mayhem, we were able to get the old house up on the market in July and shortly thereafter we had many showings and then a contract on the house a short time later. It was then, as I thought about the selling of our house that the following jumped out at me.

 

Our old house went onto the market on Monday, July 13th.

 

We had an accepted contract on the old house in 13 Days.

 

This real estate deal zoomed through the banks and the inspections and just this last Friday, August 28th, we closed on the house.

 

In our lives, 13 is a lucky number. It is the number that shows us the God did what we prayed for, he helped us get a new house that we love and helped us sell our old house fast.

 

And the Lord was not done there.

 

The new buyer simply loved all the work Karen and I put into the house. He plans on keeping the flowers as they are and enjoy the fruits of our efforts. The closing ended up like a bunch of old friends and family having a great time visiting. We were sharing information about the house, the homeowner’s association, and the gardens.

 

Everything on the purchase and sale fell into place. Just what you would expect when God runs the show!

 

Now how about that for God being a Realtor!

 

Praise the Lord!!!

 

Sanford Berenberg

sanford@berenberg.net

www.berenberg.net

 

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Today's Walk With the Lord - The Lord Provides

Good Morning,

 

The other day I reached out for help on turning my life over to Jesus, and within a day, there was an odd occurrence.

 

While working online I saw an image of a book for merely a second and it was gone.

 

The book is called:

 

“I Can’t See God Because I’m In The Way: Getting Beyond Self-Centered Religion to Passionate Faith”

 

I looked it up on Amazon and shortly thereafter picked it up and it is next on the reading list.

 

It is amazing the way the Lord responds to our prayers and requests. It is fitting that my request be answered with a book, with the volume of books I read.

 

It is also comforting to know that I am not alone in my quest for greater faith and understanding in the Lord.

 

The Lord does provide!

 

Enjoy!

 

Sanford Berenberg

sanford@berenberg.net

www.berenberg.net

 

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Today's Walk With The Lord - Knowing How to Turn It Over To the Lord

Good Morning,

 

I have been growing in my faith over the last few years and have achieved some amazing milestones in my walk with Christ.

 

It is hard to put into words, but I feel more comfortable in life, happier overall (there are still rough days), but overall life is better.

 

I have found that the more I turn over to Christ to handle for me, the better my life has been, but I seem to run into challenges in giving everything over to Him.

 

All my life I have been the one to step up and help, and in the past I have had hard time letting others help me. Due to life situations I have gotten pretty good at letting people help me, and I have gotten better at letting Christ take over, but at times I come up against a wall.

 

Like ‘Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus’ I have learned to stop running in and trying to help when others share their problems (especially my wife, Karen).

 

Yet, there are some aspects of my life where I cannot fathom letting another take care of. I know it will come with time and prayer, but I am not there yet. I do know, though, that the more I give over the Lord, the more I will get back.

 

Please pray for me to help get me over this hurdle.

 

Thank you!

 

Sanford

 

Sanford@berenberg.net