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“But whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17 For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.” 2 Cor 16-18
As I reflect on the sweet life of an even sweeter sister in Christ, Catherine Hanna, I find peace in these verses. For we, as Christians, have eternal hope thru Christ Jesus, that someday too we will be changed into His glorious image. And, we will reunite with all those that have gone before us, together again to worship the One and Only……the Almighty Healer……the Great I Am. What a Glorious day!
In Him,
Angela
Monday, April 26, 2010
Monday, April 12, 2010
No Explanation Necessary
Hello Ladies!!!!
I just need to tell you that hello was with soooooo much enthusiasm as I sit here typing what I feel God has for me to share with you. As you can tell it has been a while since I have contributed to our blog. I have had some wonderful sisters step in to help me out during an incredibly difficult season. A season completely brought into my life from what I would have thought to be out there in left field (execuse the base ball analogy- it just happens to be that time in our home):). I wonder if you will take a moment and let me share my heart with you...
I had just come to the other side of what seemed the impossible.I was on a mountain top. My God had chosen to once again pour out His grace and mercy upon me and take a medical diagnosis and turn it upside down. The unexplainable test results showed the cancer in my body was gone.....no explanations.....no specialists.....just gone......just like that. Leaving me completley dumbfounded,I grappled with His choice to save me (again). I continued to engage in worship, prayer, fellowship, and just hanging with Him. As time passed I became increasingly aware of a small voice in the back of my head asking "Why me Lord...why me??? I don't deserve your goodness" As I searched for an explanation to my blessings, I continued my journey as life threw our family various trials and He continued to remain faithful to His promises. As life continued, I found myself feeling a need to earn what had been graciously bestowed upon me. You know the feeling....the one that creeps upon us telling us we need to be in that study, on that committee,hanging out with "those" people, not doing "that". Afterall I needed to be good enough to earn what He had done in my life. So I tried- I tried extra hard, for a real long time. See, here is a little background you need to know about this gal- this was not the first time He had given me so much.Oh no....ladies. He had already delivered me from addiction,desperation, a failing marriage, broken relationships, deceit,a lust for anything but Him.....and now cancer.I did not understand why He continued to keep saving me. I continued in my futile attempts to earn what He had given me and in an effort to try and understand this show of affection for what I deemed a worthless cause such as myself.....I had wandered...not intentionally...but far away from Truth. I took a wrong turn and what I found waiting for me was not pretty. Not pretty at all. Satan had decided to bring a full scale attack on this girl. The seed of doubt had been planted and I had fallen for it. And to say the least I was ill-prepared for what lie ahead. I would soon find out the battle for my mind and loyalty became Satans ultimate prize.I have spent the last several months waged in a battle I would have NEVER thought I would end up in. Afterall, I knew the Word, I went to church- even though my attendance was becoming sparatic, I prayed..... even if it had now just become at dinner with the children....I was His, I was sealed...I was safe...and afterall I was saved.But somehow I ended up in a pit so dark I wasn't sure if Satan would even visit me. The attack was different this time.Not like it had been for my salvation. See this time Satan was much more cunning.He knew he had to come at me in such a way I would question the very core of who I thought I knew myself to be. To be good enough. Vulnerabilities and insecurites I thougt I had given to Jesus, I infact had not. Satan knew these and brought every one and I do mean every one of them to my front door with a big red bow begging to be opened. I opened them......all of them...with eager anticipation everytime. Although these "gifts" seemed to be what I wanted at the time, with each one I opened, I found myself growing more and more desperate each passing day. Desperate..... again....hadn't we already covered this? Desperate to be good enough. Good enough to be a daughter of a king who is enthralled by my beauty. But beautiful I did not feel. I had made a self propelled mess again. Ashamed, embarassed,and wounded I tried to fix me...to fix the mess I made. In my attempt to fix me I did not invite Jesus. I had denied His help.... I was surely of no use now. Any "good" in me had vanished. And there I was....all alone. Just me and my "gifts".
Until one day I happened to be driving my children to school and my oldest changed the radio to the local Christian radio station.( the dial had not been set there in a while...) I heard the words my heart so badly needed to hear:
" Jesus I come, I come to you again, like it was the first time I came to you for new life, I need you now as much as I did then I need a new begginning so Jesus I am coming for the first time again...."
I dropped all the kids to school and pulled my car over and wept....wept like I had not wept in months... I could feel again....I could feel Him. He was right there. He had never left. His voice so sweet and tender" My sweet girl YOU are the reason I went to the cross. YOU are good enough. YOU are my child and there is NO SIN I can not forgive. YOU can never earn my grace, Crystal. I freely give it to YOU because I love YOU "
A new beginning indeed. It has not been overnight that I have been restored. Much has come from this battle. Brokeness, healing, awareness of my desperation for nothing but HIM, and the fact that I can NOT get two inches from Him. It has renewed my passion to know Him. To not just know Him, but to be consumed by Him. Knowing that I am good enough no explanation needed.
I felt God leading me to share this with you for the chance that maybe there is a sweet girl who needs to know- YOU are good enough. YOU need never to feel as if you need to earn His love. The gifts that He chooses to lavish upon us are His to give and we are complete in HIM sister. COMPLETE- we lack nothing. Not apperances, wealth, knowledge, stature- we lack NOTHING in HIM. He is truly all we need. So today I share with you :
and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.- Colossians 2:10 NKJV
Did you get that last part- "the head of all principality and power" Ladies HE knows. He knows the victory is His and He is the HEAD of ALL PRINCIPALITY and POWER. Satan can NOT win and we can NOT lose. Never forget you lack NOTHING in HIM. The day we ALL figure that out will be a bad bad day for Satan. We are complete in Christ. Thank you Jesus thank you.
I thank you for taking the time to read through just one of the many facets of my journey with Him. I pray that each of you will find your completeness in Him and know that YOU are good enough.Just like you are. No expalnations necessary.
Complete In Him,
Crystal
I just need to tell you that hello was with soooooo much enthusiasm as I sit here typing what I feel God has for me to share with you. As you can tell it has been a while since I have contributed to our blog. I have had some wonderful sisters step in to help me out during an incredibly difficult season. A season completely brought into my life from what I would have thought to be out there in left field (execuse the base ball analogy- it just happens to be that time in our home):). I wonder if you will take a moment and let me share my heart with you...
I had just come to the other side of what seemed the impossible.I was on a mountain top. My God had chosen to once again pour out His grace and mercy upon me and take a medical diagnosis and turn it upside down. The unexplainable test results showed the cancer in my body was gone.....no explanations.....no specialists.....just gone......just like that. Leaving me completley dumbfounded,I grappled with His choice to save me (again). I continued to engage in worship, prayer, fellowship, and just hanging with Him. As time passed I became increasingly aware of a small voice in the back of my head asking "Why me Lord...why me??? I don't deserve your goodness" As I searched for an explanation to my blessings, I continued my journey as life threw our family various trials and He continued to remain faithful to His promises. As life continued, I found myself feeling a need to earn what had been graciously bestowed upon me. You know the feeling....the one that creeps upon us telling us we need to be in that study, on that committee,hanging out with "those" people, not doing "that". Afterall I needed to be good enough to earn what He had done in my life. So I tried- I tried extra hard, for a real long time. See, here is a little background you need to know about this gal- this was not the first time He had given me so much.Oh no....ladies. He had already delivered me from addiction,desperation, a failing marriage, broken relationships, deceit,a lust for anything but Him.....and now cancer.I did not understand why He continued to keep saving me. I continued in my futile attempts to earn what He had given me and in an effort to try and understand this show of affection for what I deemed a worthless cause such as myself.....I had wandered...not intentionally...but far away from Truth. I took a wrong turn and what I found waiting for me was not pretty. Not pretty at all. Satan had decided to bring a full scale attack on this girl. The seed of doubt had been planted and I had fallen for it. And to say the least I was ill-prepared for what lie ahead. I would soon find out the battle for my mind and loyalty became Satans ultimate prize.I have spent the last several months waged in a battle I would have NEVER thought I would end up in. Afterall, I knew the Word, I went to church- even though my attendance was becoming sparatic, I prayed..... even if it had now just become at dinner with the children....I was His, I was sealed...I was safe...and afterall I was saved.But somehow I ended up in a pit so dark I wasn't sure if Satan would even visit me. The attack was different this time.Not like it had been for my salvation. See this time Satan was much more cunning.He knew he had to come at me in such a way I would question the very core of who I thought I knew myself to be. To be good enough. Vulnerabilities and insecurites I thougt I had given to Jesus, I infact had not. Satan knew these and brought every one and I do mean every one of them to my front door with a big red bow begging to be opened. I opened them......all of them...with eager anticipation everytime. Although these "gifts" seemed to be what I wanted at the time, with each one I opened, I found myself growing more and more desperate each passing day. Desperate..... again....hadn't we already covered this? Desperate to be good enough. Good enough to be a daughter of a king who is enthralled by my beauty. But beautiful I did not feel. I had made a self propelled mess again. Ashamed, embarassed,and wounded I tried to fix me...to fix the mess I made. In my attempt to fix me I did not invite Jesus. I had denied His help.... I was surely of no use now. Any "good" in me had vanished. And there I was....all alone. Just me and my "gifts".
Until one day I happened to be driving my children to school and my oldest changed the radio to the local Christian radio station.( the dial had not been set there in a while...) I heard the words my heart so badly needed to hear:
" Jesus I come, I come to you again, like it was the first time I came to you for new life, I need you now as much as I did then I need a new begginning so Jesus I am coming for the first time again...."
I dropped all the kids to school and pulled my car over and wept....wept like I had not wept in months... I could feel again....I could feel Him. He was right there. He had never left. His voice so sweet and tender" My sweet girl YOU are the reason I went to the cross. YOU are good enough. YOU are my child and there is NO SIN I can not forgive. YOU can never earn my grace, Crystal. I freely give it to YOU because I love YOU "
A new beginning indeed. It has not been overnight that I have been restored. Much has come from this battle. Brokeness, healing, awareness of my desperation for nothing but HIM, and the fact that I can NOT get two inches from Him. It has renewed my passion to know Him. To not just know Him, but to be consumed by Him. Knowing that I am good enough no explanation needed.
I felt God leading me to share this with you for the chance that maybe there is a sweet girl who needs to know- YOU are good enough. YOU need never to feel as if you need to earn His love. The gifts that He chooses to lavish upon us are His to give and we are complete in HIM sister. COMPLETE- we lack nothing. Not apperances, wealth, knowledge, stature- we lack NOTHING in HIM. He is truly all we need. So today I share with you :
and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.- Colossians 2:10 NKJV
Did you get that last part- "the head of all principality and power" Ladies HE knows. He knows the victory is His and He is the HEAD of ALL PRINCIPALITY and POWER. Satan can NOT win and we can NOT lose. Never forget you lack NOTHING in HIM. The day we ALL figure that out will be a bad bad day for Satan. We are complete in Christ. Thank you Jesus thank you.
I thank you for taking the time to read through just one of the many facets of my journey with Him. I pray that each of you will find your completeness in Him and know that YOU are good enough.Just like you are. No expalnations necessary.
Complete In Him,
Crystal
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