Posts tagged redemption
July 22, 2011 · Filed under Christian Living, Life, Redemption, Religion, Servanthood, Trust · Tagged Call of God, Christian Living, faith, redemption, regret, trust
Peter gets a bad rap. You know…Peter…the one who denied Jesus 3 times on the night he was crucified. People love to talk about Peter whimping out on Jesus, his friend and teacher, when Jesus needed him most. This is true. However, remember how Peter regretted it and remember that Peter became one of the most influential persons in the Bible ever! God will still use us even when we fail him.
I began to think about Peter the other night and wondered how he felt day in and day out living with that regret. Knowing that what Jesus had predicted came to pass as that rooster crowed a third time. I like to put myself in a Bible story when I read it; it helps me to grasp it. I can see Jesus in the hands of the religious people…I can see Peter telling a person “no! I don’t know who He is and I have never followed him!” About that time….in the distance….a rooster crows. This is the third crow Peter has heard in just a few hours. He turns, looks at Jesus and realizes…the prophecy has come to pass. Jesus looks at him… not with judgment or anger. No, he looks at Peter with love. He looks at Peter with forgiveness. He looks at Peter because he knows how it feels to be human. He knows the temptation, the fear, the doubt, and the hurt of being human. And he understands. He wasn’t mad at Peter. On the contrary, he knew that now…now that Peter had fallen…now Peter would be used beyond all comprehension. Even Peter could not fathom how he would be used in the kingdom of God. You see, in the words of Kay Warren, that “Kingdom of Me” must fall. That pride and that self preservation that we have.
Jesus doesn’t get mad at us. He doesn’t hold our failures against us. So…why do we do that to ourselves? When Jesus forgives, He forgives. Why do we beat ourselves up? I wonder if Peter lived with that regret every day for the rest of his life. I can imagine he did. But, he let that regret and that determination to never let God down again drive him to becoming a great man of God. Can we do this? Can we let our failures go? If we can’t let them go…can we let them drive us to not make the same mistake again? Can we allow them to mold us into the person we are called to be?
I don’t want to give Peter a bad rap anymore. I think Peter did pretty good myself. Ok…he made a mistake. Ok…he made a really big mistake. But…so have you and so have I. We all make mistakes…we all have regrets. We are human. Jesus understands that because he was too.
April 30, 2011 · Filed under Christian Living, Praise, Redemption, Religion, Trust · Tagged Christianity, God, hard times, hurt, Jesus, redemption, suffering, trust
I have been attempting to write this blog for several weeks now, but have had to wrap my head around it. It seems as if things come in waves. You know, things are going good…life is happy and then WHAM! Something knocks you down. Then before you can even begin to get up again, something else comes along and WHAM! Another one. It seems like seasons of suffering…seasons of pain. What do we do with these seasons? What are we supposed to make of them? I have pondered this for about 2 months now. I have one thing after another after another after another. And I still don’t have an answer to the question posed, so if you came here looking for one, I am afraid you will leave disappointed.
I do know that in the midst of hurt is when we can feel God’s presence most. I do know that his word states “blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of God.” Why would he make a point to put this in his word for us? He wants us to know…”hold on during that pain, hold on during that hurt…you have something so much greater in store”.
Job tells us “but he knows the way that I take and when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold” Gold goes through a tremendous amount of pressure to come forth as pure. I guess it’s that way with us. We cry out to God to make it (whatever our “it” is) stop. We cry out to him to make his presence known. We cry out for forgiveness and a little bit of peace. That’s fine. But, what if we look at it a different way? What if we look at it as every tear we cry is bringing us closer to Him? What if we look upon the hurt as an opportunity for him to heal? What if we look at every wrong done to us as a chance to forgive and show his grace? Maybe then we could go through the suffering just a bit easier. Will it be easy? No way! Will there be days when we just beg God to relieve us a bit? There sure are. But, take a breath. Know he is there. Know he cares. Know there is something so much bigger at work; things we can’t see or fathom. Know he knows. Yup…take a breath and trust…knowing after it’s done, you will come forth as gold——and so will I.
December 7, 2010 · Filed under Christian Living, Family, Life, Parenting, Youth Ministry · Tagged Christian Living, God, Jesus, Premarital Sex, redemption, Religion, Sex, society, youth
Before you read It’s my blog and my opinion. If yours differs, that’s ok too….write your own blog. 
Now that we have that settled, if you wish to keep reading….here we go.
I was watching a popular show the other night. In this scene, there were 2 teen girls. One teen was telling the other how she just wasn’t sure how she was going to know that the guy she is dating loves her and not his ex. The friend proceeds to tell her that she has to have sex with him to “land him”. I was astounded. Not that we don’t see these things on television every day, but to just hear the words so blatantly spoken between 2 teenagers and realize that in our world, this is what is believed. Instead of telling her friend that she is a beautiful person who deserves to be loved for who she is and what she is, this girl was telling her friend to use her body to win “love”.
First, what we do simply with our bodies does not indicate love. Girls (and boys) do not understand the emotional baggage that comes with premarital sex. I do. I had it and bore that baggage. I have tried so hard to explain not only to my daughter, but to all teen girls who have been in my youth group. Emotional hurt takes so long to heal, and without a savior, many never find their healing.
Our girls are told daily that in order to be loved; in order to “land him” they must offer their bodies. Well, when most girls offer their bodies, they offer their minds and their hearts as well. This is what leads to the emotional pain. I find it disheartening that our society ok’s and even endorses our girls (and guys) act in this manner.
I encourage you, especially if you are a parent, to talk to your children. Tell your sons to treat girls as they deserve to be treated. Tell them to use respect. Tell your girls that they are beautiful and deserve to be treated as such. Tell them that they deserve to have a man who will love them and only them. Tell them that contrary to popular belief, giving your body away will not “land him”. Just a thought….
November 13, 2010 · Filed under Christian Living, Life, Redemption, Religion · Tagged God, Grace, Jesus, redemption, Religion, trust, videos
I just heard this song and loved it! I want to dedicate it to all who are running as hard as they can run…..you can’t outrun mercy; you can’t outrun grace. He loves you…no matter what. Quit running and just…..come on home.
October 26, 2010 · Filed under Christian Living, Family, Life, Praise, Redemption, Religion, Trust · Tagged Christian Living, God, Healing, Jesus, redemption, Religion, Sexual Abuse, videos
I recently heard this song by Matthew West and it amazed me. As most of you know, I was sexually abused as a young child (if you don’t know, read past blogs to read my testimony). I have felt the pain and shame and know how alone this can make you feel. I know how it feels to want to take your own life because you can’t take the shame and who you’ve become. You don’t have to be that way. God stands with open arms waiting to heal you and make you whole. You don’t have to live broken any longer…
October 15, 2010 · Filed under Christian Living, Life, Praise, Redemption, Religion, Servanthood, Trust · Tagged Christ, Christian, God, Jesus, redemption, Religion, Satan, sin, videos, youth
This video is one the most amazing human videos I have ever seen. In this a young girl goes from having Jesus as the center of the universe, Him being her best friend to being coerced by Satan. Just like that, her world is changed. First there comes romance, then money, followed by partying and drinking, self-esteem (or lack thereof) and finally depression. She is almost ready to end it and realizes that Jesus is her everything. She starts to run back to Him, but the world is fighting her. She’s fighting so hard to get to Him. That’s how it is for us sometimes. We want to get back to where we were with Him at one point in our lives, yet we feel like we can’t. But! I want you to take special care to notice this…..the whole time Jesus is on the other side pulling her….literally pulling her back to Him. That’s how He is….He pulls us, woos us back to Him. Let me ask you….is He your everything?
October 8, 2010 · Filed under Christian Living, Life, Praise, Redemption, Religion, Servanthood, Trust · Tagged Christianity, faith, God, Jesus, Plan, redemption, Religion, trust
…..I left off with Rahab. Now I want to introduce you to a man named Saul. Saul hated Christians. I mean he hated them; it was his main goal in life to kill them, to hurt them, to destroy them. But God had a different plan. One day Saul was on his way to Damascus and a bright light appeared to Him. He dropped to his knees and said “who are you Lord?” The voice said “I am Jesus who you are persecuting.” Then Jesus told him to go to Damascus and wait. After that, God spoke to a Christian man Ananias. He told Ananias to go to Damascus to Saul of Tarsus. Ananias was like “eh…are you sure Lord? Do you know who this guy is?!?!? He will kill me and enjoy every minute of it!!! “ (my paraphrasing). God was like “GO!” Ananias obeyed. When Ananias got to Saul the Bible says he laid his hand on Saul and something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes. Saul was filled with the Holy Spirit and became a Christ follower. Interestingly enough, God had told Ananias that He (God) was going to show Saul how much he must suffer for Christ. And suffer he did. Saul became Paul and suffered beatings, imprisonment, ship wrecks, storms, persecution. But, God always had a plan! Paul wrote a significant part of the New Testament and is responsible for spreading the Gospel over a huge amount of land! What an amazing testimony of the grace of Jesus Christ! God had a plan for Saul to become Paul. Out with the old, in with the new.
Now, to a man named Jesus. Jesus was born in a manger to a virgin. The world was not lying in wait for him as stories like to make us think. No, there was chaos all around. The scene Jesus entered into was a scary one. But rest assured God had a plan. Jesus grew. He was a son, a friend, a brother, a leader. He was led into temptation by Satan himself and tempted so that He would know how you and I felt. He was beaten, belittled, sworn at, spat at, and hung on a cross. But God had a plan. What was that plan? As Jesus stretched out His arms and said “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” God looked down the road 2,000+ years later and saw a messed up young woman named Kim calling on His name. He saw her; hurt and beaten down by life, He saw her at her wit’s end. He saw her hurting and needing a healing from the inside out. And as Jesus took his last breath and said “it is finished” the veil in the temple ripped from top to bottom granting US total access to God the Father, something that until that moment had not been accessible to anyone other than the high priest. The sky grew dark. The Earth began to shake and the very people who had killed him said “surely this was the Son of God!” As this happened, He looked down the road and saw humanity in all their weakness, needing a savior. Perhaps He saw you, at your wit’s end; calling on His name saying “Jesus! I just can’t do this by myself! I need you!” Yes, there was a plan. There has always been a plan. It’s a plan of redemption. It’s a plan of mercy and grace. Above that, it’s a plan of love.
Let me assure you. I don’t know where you are. I may know you, I may not. But, I do know Jesus. And, Jesus knows you. I do know that He always has a plan. He had one for Moses, he had one for Rahab, he had one for Saul, and He had one for Jesus. He has one for me and he has one for you. He already paid the price. All you have to do is accept the gift.
October 6, 2010 · Filed under Christian Living, Life, Praise, Redemption, Religion, Servanthood, Trust · Tagged Christianity, God, Jesus, Plan, redemption, Religion, trust
This blog is based on a message that I did at our youth group a couple of weeks ago. It is lengthy, so I am going to write it in 2 blogs…. I want to take you through several Bible stories. All of these will probably be very familiar to you. I want to show you that throughout time, and even now, God always has a plan. No matter how bad things look, God is working in the background.
First, I want to take you to Moses. The Israelites had been ordered to throw their boy babies in the Nile River. Can you imagine being a parent and your leader ordering you to throw your child into a crocodile infested river where they would die a horrible death? Moses’ mother had a different idea and God had a plan. So, she put him in a basket and sent him on his way in the river. Not only did God have a plan and deliver him, but God had him raised in Pharaoh’s home! Yes….the very one who had ordered him dead. God used Moses years later to deliver His people from Pharaoh. Moses led millions of people through the wilderness and then onto their promised land (though he never crossed into the promised land himself; that is another blog). You see though, God had a huge plan.
Now I want to take you to a woman named Rahab. Rahab was a harlot; a prostitute. Rahab was not part of God’s chosen people so she had not been raised with the Law of God being told to her. Sure, she may have heard it here or there, but she wasn’t raised as one of the religious Jewish people. But, the Bible tells us that to every man “a measure of faith” is given. I believe it was that measure of faith that caused Rahab to hide 2 spies when they came over into Jericho where she lived. They were coming to spy out the land before they overtook it. They were part of God’s chosen people. Rahab hid them with one condition; when they came back to destroy the city, they had to let her and her family live. They agreed and told her to have a cord hanging from her window and to make sure that all of her family were in that room. They would instruct their soldiers that everyone in that home would be spared. God had a plan. God used a harlot to help his people. God used that same harlot in the lineage of Jesus Christ. Yes, Rahab the harlot was one of Jesus’ Earthly great grandmothers (I can’t remember right now how many “greats” to put in there, but it was quite a few)! This tells me something else as well. That God doesn’t need the cleanest, most well behaved people. Nope, He just needs someone willing to be used by Him…
To Be Continued…..(but are you beginning to see the picture yet? Our God is so amazing!)…
October 2, 2010 · Filed under Christian Living, Redemption, Religion, Trust · Tagged Christian Living, Disciples, faith, God, Jesus, Paul, redemption, Religion, Satan, Serpent
I was reading Acts the other day and read a story that I have read a hundred times before, but this time it really struck me. It is in Acts 28. Paul, after surviving a shipwreck finally gets to the island of Malta. He builds a fire and as he gathered brushwood a snake, who was driven out by the heat, bit him. Actually, my version states “it fastened itself to his hand”. But then (read this carefully!) Paul simply shook the snake off of his hand! The islanders who were watching started talking amongst themselves saying that surely this man must be a murderer because he escaped the sea, but now justice was not letting him live. In their thoughts, fate had jumped in.
Now there’s a couple of things here we need to examine. First, in the Bible the serpent usually represents evil or Satan; keep that in your mind. I can just see it now, Paul was exhausted from a storm in the sea and being shipwrecked and is thinking to himself “ahhh, I am finally gonna get warm and get my belly full” and then a snake bites him! Paul was like “are you kidding me?!?!? I don’t think so! God didn’t bring me this far to let me get bit by a snake and die!” So, he simply shook it off! This is how we need to be with satan. He has no power if you are a born again child of God. He has already been defeated! Shake him off. Look at him like Paul did when he looked at the snake and say “uh….no I don’t think so! Get off of me!”
Secondly, we need to look at the islanders. They immediately looked at what was happening to Paul and assumed he was being punished for something. Remember Job? His friends did the same with him. People in your life will do the same with you. They will look at you when you are going through troubles and wonder why. Then they will wonder how you are going to react. How are you going to face troubles thrown at you? How are you going to react to the snake when he comes?
As the islanders see that Paul is not going to die, they began to look at him as a God. People will watch us. When they see that you are coming out of a storm, that you shook off the enemy, that you kept a good attitude while being attacked, they will look to you. This is your chance to show them that no, I am not a God…..but I can show you THE God.
So, my question to you is this; how will you react when the snake comes your way? Will you just shake him off and keep going? Will you weather the storms in your life hidden in the shelter of the most high God (Psalm 91) and when people ask….will you point them to the true, living God?
So today…..let me encourage you to go ahead……do a little shaking.
July 19, 2010 · Filed under Christian Living, Life, Praise, Redemption, Religion, Servanthood · Tagged atlanta, china, compassion, hope, Jesus, missions, redemption, Religion
Back in 2008 I took my first missions trip; to China. Yeah, that was a big one. When I do something, I tend to go all out 
I had never felt called to missions in any way. Don’t get me wrong, I was willing to pray and financially support, but I never felt like I should actually GO anywhere. My husband had taken our youth group to Miami, but I was never able to go as our son was too young to go, so I stayed home with him. I wasn’t ever disappointed about that. Again, I just never felt called to go anywhere. That changed when I felt God calling me to something deeper. I don’t remember exactly what happened, I just know that I prayed the prayer “whatever you want me to do, I’ll do and wherever you want me to go, I’ll go.” Be careful with that. The next thing I knew we were being approached by a youth pastor friend of ours and planning a trip to China. It was a tedious time raising all of the money needed, getting the required shots, planning for our children while we were gone for 2 weeks and then the 21+ hour flight there! We had family members who were not supportive of foreign missions. We even had fellow Christians who were not supportive. It did not distract us. We knew we were called to go; it was that clear! During our planning time, a friend gave me the book “Dangerous Surrender” by Kay Warren as a gift. WOW! This book should come with a warning! As I read it, I felt my heart began to tear apart. My eyes began to open to tragedies around the world and how we, as Christians, should be ready to stand up and fight when we have a holy anger. I had no idea what God was doing, but I knew He was up to something good! Well, my trip to China was beyond my imagination. It was so awesome to be able to see sights such as the Great Wall, etc. but nothing prepared me for the way I would feel when I got to meet the people. Nothing prepared me for the hurt my heart would feel when I saw people living in communism and poverty. I met people that I could not converse with, but the bond was there still the same (some of my favorites ladies are in picture below with me). My heart melted. I cried for days after getting home. I attributed it partially to jet lag (which was really bad) but the truth was, God broke my heart like I had asked Him to. Yeah, I asked Him to open my eyes to see things as He sees and I asked Him to break my heart like His breaks; for the things that His breaks for. I was not prepared for the work that began on that trip in October of 2008.
I had not went on another missions trip until this month when we took our youth group to Atlanta. It wasn’t due to lack of want to or lack of opportunity. It just didn’t happen. I figure God knows best and will send me where He needs me when He needs me. I was excited, but not the way I had been to go to China. I don’t know why really. DID GOD BLOW ME AWAY!!!!!!!!!!!! I just thought my heart had broken in China. I just thought God had messed me up over there! I have still not stopped crying. And you know what? That’s ok. To stop crying means my memories are fading. I never want that to happen. I never want to forget serving dinner to homeless men, women, and yes, even children and then watching them walk away to go to bed underneath their bridges. I never want to forget seeing the terror in the eyes of some of them because of their circumstances. I never want to forget hugging and loving on someone who hasn’t bathed in who knows how long and how happy it made me to do it. I never want to forget little Isaiah and his brother (picture below) who were so happy to play with a plastic spoon and be the center of attention. I never want to forget praying with an old homeless fella for his sister to be at peace even though she has AIDS and for him to be at peace as well. I never want to forget what I felt when I looked around the sanctuary at Rescue Atlanta the night of revival and realize 
I was worshipping with society’s outcasts and having a ball doing it! I never want to forget what it feels like to give someone a hug who hasn’t been touched in God only knows how long. I never want to forget what it feels like to truly be the hands and feet of Jesus; doing what it is He wants us to do…being a TRUE Christian.
I never wanna stop crying. And I pray once again with you my reader as my witness, the following prayer:
“God, here I am….I will do what you want me to do and I will go where you need me to go.”
