Originally posted on OUT OF DEEP WATERS April 4, 2008
Two years ago I sat in class at our church office for our once a month healing school. I eagerly anticipated this class every month, as I was excited to learn more about healing and how to pray for healing, but not this night; I really had not wanted to come. I almost turned around half way there.
The pastor shared a lot that night and as he did the Holy Spirit brought one memory to mind. I dismissed it, but it kept coming back. After the pastor was done he lead us in a corporate prayer and I sobbed the whole way through. He asked if anyone wanted to share and I raised my hand, still unable to speak through the sobs. I did not know what I would say, but I knew that something had just happened in me. I left that night and called a friend and told her I thought something really big happened and I was not sure what it was, but it was going to change my life, my marriage and my mothering. Little did I know how much changed in that two hour class.
I had battled depression since I was a child, but that night when the pastor prayed something settled in my spirit, wounds were released and healing came (although I did not know it at the time). Over the next several months the Lord confirmed my experience through prayer, visions, and prophetic words. I was pregnant at the time with baby three and six months later I delivered my baby girl, Kaira Hope. Shortly after I knew clearly what happened that night in the healing school - I was healed of a life time of depression. I had been in counseling and on medication for almost 20 years. After my second was born I no longer went to counseling, instead I began to be transformed by the renewing of my mind through the Word and after Kaira's birth I no longer needed medication.
During my two previous pregnancies I stopped all medication, but resumed after delivery. The Lord began to speak to me clearly about the depression and the medication and what He had done that night. I was healed! It has been two years since that unforgettable and life-changing day, but the effects will last a lifetime.
Just think what I would have missed if I had not gone that night. Maybe that is the night I learned not to go with my emotions (which has blessed me countless times since then).
I listened to Sara Groves tonight and I wonder what led her to write the following lyrics that sound so familiar to me:
Something changed inside me broke wide open all spilled out
Till I had no doubt that something changed
Never would have believed it till I felt it in my own heart
In the deepest part the healing came
That's His story and I'm sticking to it!
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Sunday, July 20, 2008
GOD'S GONNA TELL HIS STORY
Earlier this year I went to a local homeschool hybrid school and taught a group of girls about hospitality, tea and etiquette. It was a great time to share my love of tea and encourage the girls to fulfill the command to be hospitable.
The Lord showed up in a big way even before the event. He gave me specific scripture to share and even told me to give them goody bags and what to put in them. He was in all the details. There was one detail that I had not expected. He was in my talk and I mean REALLY in my talk. You see I opened with my name and company name, went into hospitality, then etiquette/manners and tea. It was more technical than personal and more light-hearted than spiritual. After the presentation was over one of the moms came to me and thanked me for sharing my testimony. What? My testimony? I ran over and over in my head what I shared and I thought, “What you mean my name?” I asked her, "What exactly did I say." She said, “It is just obvious how much you love the Lord.” WOW! She got that from scripture, etiquette/manners and tea? It makes me cry even now. He took my words and transformed them into a testimony that ministered to this mom in whatever area she needed ministering in. You see we are storytellers, whether we actually tell our stories or not. God, by the power of His Holy Spirit will transform what we say into what people need to hear.
A little background: When we purchased the business one thing the Lord impressed upon me was “testimony” – this business was creating a testimony to His Glory. We had a business dedication and everyone brought a scripture or word the Lord had given them concerning our business and wrote them on a balloon. Without ever hearing the word the Lord gave me, notice the word “testimony” written on the balloon by one of our friends (left hand side). God is so Awesome and Faithful.
Go ahead tell His story, if not He’ll use what you say to tell it anyway.
That's His story and I'm sticking to it!
The Lord showed up in a big way even before the event. He gave me specific scripture to share and even told me to give them goody bags and what to put in them. He was in all the details. There was one detail that I had not expected. He was in my talk and I mean REALLY in my talk. You see I opened with my name and company name, went into hospitality, then etiquette/manners and tea. It was more technical than personal and more light-hearted than spiritual. After the presentation was over one of the moms came to me and thanked me for sharing my testimony. What? My testimony? I ran over and over in my head what I shared and I thought, “What you mean my name?” I asked her, "What exactly did I say." She said, “It is just obvious how much you love the Lord.” WOW! She got that from scripture, etiquette/manners and tea? It makes me cry even now. He took my words and transformed them into a testimony that ministered to this mom in whatever area she needed ministering in. You see we are storytellers, whether we actually tell our stories or not. God, by the power of His Holy Spirit will transform what we say into what people need to hear.
A little background: When we purchased the business one thing the Lord impressed upon me was “testimony” – this business was creating a testimony to His Glory. We had a business dedication and everyone brought a scripture or word the Lord had given them concerning our business and wrote them on a balloon. Without ever hearing the word the Lord gave me, notice the word “testimony” written on the balloon by one of our friends (left hand side). God is so Awesome and Faithful.
Go ahead tell His story, if not He’ll use what you say to tell it anyway.
That's His story and I'm sticking to it!
Thursday, July 17, 2008
COME AND LISTEN
A beautiful video of David Crowder singing Come and Listen
Let me tell you what He has done for me.
Let me tell you what He has done for me,
He has done for you,
He has done for us.
So, come back to COME AND LISTEN!
That's His story and I'm sticking to it!
Let me tell you what He has done for me.
Let me tell you what He has done for me,
He has done for you,
He has done for us.
So, come back to COME AND LISTEN!
That's His story and I'm sticking to it!
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
GUEST STORYTELLER - HIS STORY OF RELENTLESS PURSUIT
Growing up in Baltimore, Maryland as a very busy and active 12-year old, I really didn't see it coming.
I came home one summer afternoon and there they were. Two young men wearing white shirts and ties in our living room talking to my mom and sister. I paid no attention to it. I'd come home everyday and there they were again. A couple weeks later, I found myself sitting down and "listening" to them. Hey, I was 12 - I was lucky to absorb one-third of what they were teaching. Before I knew it though - I was Mormon.
I was raised Baptist and basically went every Sunday - only because I had to. My father wouldn't come with us. It wasn't a priority for him. So, when I was told we were going to be baptized and changing churches, it really didn't hit me. I always went to church with them, so I would continue to follow along.
As the years passed, I would later come to recognize the classic battle - Faith vs. Works. I would continue to "check things off." I attended every Sunday. Check. I progressed in the priesthood. Check. I went to an LDS college. Check. I went on a mission to Madrid Spain. Check. I paid my tithing. Check. I got married in the temple. Check. I held positions of responsibility. Check. In my three--plus decades in the LDS church, there is so much pressure to do so much that when you miss just one "check" - you feel like an absolute failure.
Eight years ago, I had an opportunity to move from Michigan to Arizona - an absolute hotbed for LDS membership. We would get to live and worship among our own. This was going to make things great, right?
When we arrived in "Mormotopia" our children were ages 8 and 6. We thought that this would solve everything. Our kids could go to school with children they went to church with. Thing is, as they grew older - they became the "outsiders" - not in the clique. It got to a point in the last couple years where neither of our daughters wanted anything to do with the LDS church or with Christ for that matter. Why would they want to attend a church where they weren't wanted? I have to say I agreed.
For some five or six years, my wife and I questioned where we needed to be. Thing is, if you're LDS, you don't question. You just don't.
We "did it all" so to say, but after 23 years of marriage and "doing it all," why were we so unhappy? Weren't our "works" going to bless us? Seemed like we had all the "check marks."
So, for what I would say, three years, we would put on that wonderful Sunday game face and we, as a couple, still went to our meetings. Although feeling like the worst possible parents this earth could possess. Our hearts ached.
Reality struck nearly two years ago when I received a call at work one day before Christmas break indicating our youngest daughter - then 14 - was being rushed to the hospital. She took eight sleeping pills. We would later find out that she and her friends were taking pharmaceuticals from their homes and bringing them in to get high. The girls she was associating with were your typical "sugar and spice and everything nice" girls. We were wrong to judge the book by its cover.
My wife and I prayed so hard for both our daughters. Neither were happy, they were angry. After being expelled from her school, she made attempts to rid herself of bad influences and do well in school. She was and still is on her way. Her wake-up call came when she tried to turn to a good friend she used to associate with. He told her he couldn't hang out with her because his brother wouldn't let him due to her previous behavior. It broke her heart.
It would be a short time later that this friend invited her to his church - a Bible Church. She began to attend the high school student program on Wednesday nights. We saw a change. She was happy. She was around good kids. She told us she wanted to go to church with him on Easter. We asked if we could tag along. She gave her approval and we promised not to embarrass her. A teenager thing.
This Easter Sunday changed our lives. The message that day was a simple question - Do you practice a religion or do you have a relationship with Christ? My wife and I both turned to each other simultaneously - knowing the answer. We have never looked back. Each message since then, we believe, has been meant for us in our conversion to Christ. We feel so very, very free of an emotional and spiritual bondage and so full of Christ's love.
Please keep in mind that when you live in an area that has a great deal of LDS members - it is truly a "community". It's beyond a congregation. You miss two Sundays - murmuring begins. It's a network of sorts.
Since we have left, people we consider friends are now, for the lack of a better word, acquaintances. Some family members who know of our change are happy for us - and yes, they're LDS. Some family members are less than thrilled. When we needed help from our LDS ward, they weren't there for us even though we asked for help. I really don't know if they knew hot to react. In defense of a handful, they were and still are genuinely concerned. I've learned that we truly must love one another, as Christ taught. Our words and action can truly pierce the heart and soul of another. It's my prayer we be mindful and prayerful before we speak and act.
I won't go into detail, because it would take many, many pages of text, but this awakening of ours also shed light on many practices, rituals and doctrine that we today look at each other and say, "What were we thinking?" Mind you, I earned and spent my own money to go and preach this for two years in Spain. Our eyes were open, but couldn't see. We were taught principles and taught to accept them. Do not question authority.
Our oldest daughter - now 18 - has yet to attend with us. Her anger is still very deep at the LDS church and her Heavenly Father, but we pray each and every day for her heart to soften and to attend with us so she can meet her Heavenly Father and ask for help and forgiveness. To clean her house, so to speak. The thing is, she is one of the most generous and giving young women you would ever meet. And just because of continual ridicule and exclusion from those who shared her beliefs scarred her heart and her spirit. We ask for your prayers too.
But as I close this - I ask, "Who would've known?" The person who was causing so much pain, worry and strife would be the one who would lead us to Christ and a spiritual freedom that has truly changed our lives. It is through faith in Jesus Christ and not by "check marks" or works that we are saved and welcomed into his kingdom. We are eternally grateful for her inspired change and allowing us to follow in her footsteps. I only wish we had found this love, happiness and freedom long before.
You can visit Matt at Rise Rise
That's His story and I'm sticking to it!
I came home one summer afternoon and there they were. Two young men wearing white shirts and ties in our living room talking to my mom and sister. I paid no attention to it. I'd come home everyday and there they were again. A couple weeks later, I found myself sitting down and "listening" to them. Hey, I was 12 - I was lucky to absorb one-third of what they were teaching. Before I knew it though - I was Mormon.
I was raised Baptist and basically went every Sunday - only because I had to. My father wouldn't come with us. It wasn't a priority for him. So, when I was told we were going to be baptized and changing churches, it really didn't hit me. I always went to church with them, so I would continue to follow along.
As the years passed, I would later come to recognize the classic battle - Faith vs. Works. I would continue to "check things off." I attended every Sunday. Check. I progressed in the priesthood. Check. I went to an LDS college. Check. I went on a mission to Madrid Spain. Check. I paid my tithing. Check. I got married in the temple. Check. I held positions of responsibility. Check. In my three--plus decades in the LDS church, there is so much pressure to do so much that when you miss just one "check" - you feel like an absolute failure.
Eight years ago, I had an opportunity to move from Michigan to Arizona - an absolute hotbed for LDS membership. We would get to live and worship among our own. This was going to make things great, right?
When we arrived in "Mormotopia" our children were ages 8 and 6. We thought that this would solve everything. Our kids could go to school with children they went to church with. Thing is, as they grew older - they became the "outsiders" - not in the clique. It got to a point in the last couple years where neither of our daughters wanted anything to do with the LDS church or with Christ for that matter. Why would they want to attend a church where they weren't wanted? I have to say I agreed.
For some five or six years, my wife and I questioned where we needed to be. Thing is, if you're LDS, you don't question. You just don't.
We "did it all" so to say, but after 23 years of marriage and "doing it all," why were we so unhappy? Weren't our "works" going to bless us? Seemed like we had all the "check marks."
So, for what I would say, three years, we would put on that wonderful Sunday game face and we, as a couple, still went to our meetings. Although feeling like the worst possible parents this earth could possess. Our hearts ached.
Reality struck nearly two years ago when I received a call at work one day before Christmas break indicating our youngest daughter - then 14 - was being rushed to the hospital. She took eight sleeping pills. We would later find out that she and her friends were taking pharmaceuticals from their homes and bringing them in to get high. The girls she was associating with were your typical "sugar and spice and everything nice" girls. We were wrong to judge the book by its cover.
My wife and I prayed so hard for both our daughters. Neither were happy, they were angry. After being expelled from her school, she made attempts to rid herself of bad influences and do well in school. She was and still is on her way. Her wake-up call came when she tried to turn to a good friend she used to associate with. He told her he couldn't hang out with her because his brother wouldn't let him due to her previous behavior. It broke her heart.
It would be a short time later that this friend invited her to his church - a Bible Church. She began to attend the high school student program on Wednesday nights. We saw a change. She was happy. She was around good kids. She told us she wanted to go to church with him on Easter. We asked if we could tag along. She gave her approval and we promised not to embarrass her. A teenager thing.
This Easter Sunday changed our lives. The message that day was a simple question - Do you practice a religion or do you have a relationship with Christ? My wife and I both turned to each other simultaneously - knowing the answer. We have never looked back. Each message since then, we believe, has been meant for us in our conversion to Christ. We feel so very, very free of an emotional and spiritual bondage and so full of Christ's love.
Please keep in mind that when you live in an area that has a great deal of LDS members - it is truly a "community". It's beyond a congregation. You miss two Sundays - murmuring begins. It's a network of sorts.
Since we have left, people we consider friends are now, for the lack of a better word, acquaintances. Some family members who know of our change are happy for us - and yes, they're LDS. Some family members are less than thrilled. When we needed help from our LDS ward, they weren't there for us even though we asked for help. I really don't know if they knew hot to react. In defense of a handful, they were and still are genuinely concerned. I've learned that we truly must love one another, as Christ taught. Our words and action can truly pierce the heart and soul of another. It's my prayer we be mindful and prayerful before we speak and act.
I won't go into detail, because it would take many, many pages of text, but this awakening of ours also shed light on many practices, rituals and doctrine that we today look at each other and say, "What were we thinking?" Mind you, I earned and spent my own money to go and preach this for two years in Spain. Our eyes were open, but couldn't see. We were taught principles and taught to accept them. Do not question authority.
Our oldest daughter - now 18 - has yet to attend with us. Her anger is still very deep at the LDS church and her Heavenly Father, but we pray each and every day for her heart to soften and to attend with us so she can meet her Heavenly Father and ask for help and forgiveness. To clean her house, so to speak. The thing is, she is one of the most generous and giving young women you would ever meet. And just because of continual ridicule and exclusion from those who shared her beliefs scarred her heart and her spirit. We ask for your prayers too.
But as I close this - I ask, "Who would've known?" The person who was causing so much pain, worry and strife would be the one who would lead us to Christ and a spiritual freedom that has truly changed our lives. It is through faith in Jesus Christ and not by "check marks" or works that we are saved and welcomed into his kingdom. We are eternally grateful for her inspired change and allowing us to follow in her footsteps. I only wish we had found this love, happiness and freedom long before.
You can visit Matt at Rise Rise
That's His story and I'm sticking to it!
Monday, July 14, 2008
GUEST STORYTELLER
Honestly I had no plans to start this blog, I actually planned to start a homeschooling blog, but God had another idea. This morning I secured the URL and typed in a title, sub-title and joined the blog mission tour - that is when it happened…God begin to reveal a little more of His plan.
During this Blog Mission Tour I have come across some awesome people and their blogs which tell their stories and have been blessed beyond words. After emailing back and forth today and learning more about one of the commenters on the tour I know I am to let him share his story here:
He will be telling his story here tomorrow. He and his family left the LDS (Mormon) church in April and he says they “have never felt more free and full of Christ's love.” He will share how God broke into his chaos with Kingdom Order. Stay tuned…
That's His story and I'm sticking to it!
During this Blog Mission Tour I have come across some awesome people and their blogs which tell their stories and have been blessed beyond words. After emailing back and forth today and learning more about one of the commenters on the tour I know I am to let him share his story here:
He will be telling his story here tomorrow. He and his family left the LDS (Mormon) church in April and he says they “have never felt more free and full of Christ's love.” He will share how God broke into his chaos with Kingdom Order. Stay tuned…
That's His story and I'm sticking to it!
PURPOSE OF THIS BLOG
God writes His stories in my life everyday and this blog was created to share those. His stories are to be told to a lost and lonely world as a means of hope and healing. I heard a sermon yesterday that inspired me to start this blog (more on that later) and the pastor encouraged us all to tell our stories and not just our old stories, but our current, relevant stories of what God is doing in our lives. He also said the telling of our stories brings "Kingdom Order into chaos" - I love that picture!
The purpose of this blog:
The purpose of this blog:
STORYTELLING
When God breaks into chaos and brings Kingdom Order
When God breaks into chaos and brings Kingdom Order
It is also a means of fulfilling the Great Commission: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” In our stories we ARE sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ.
What is your story?
Mission Blog Tour hosted by Angela at Becoming Me, head over there to read hers and many others or join in.
That's His story and I'm sticking to it!
What is your story?
Mission Blog Tour hosted by Angela at Becoming Me, head over there to read hers and many others or join in.
That's His story and I'm sticking to it!
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