This blog is a living testimony of what Christ has done and continues to do in my life! It is only by the grace of the Father, the love of Jesus Christ, and the leading influence of the Holy Spirit that I am forgiven through faith and want nothing more than to share Jesus with you. Why? Only Jesus can make you new!
For over 2 years in Amarillo, Texas my family attended a Calvary Chapel. We enjoyed our church family but there was always a state of confusion why there was an incredible amount of pulpit time dedicated to rapture rhetoric. There was a fine point focus of the nation of Israel as well. It was so confusing as to why we were always being drilled with "rapture out of the earth" talk & teaching when the Bible clearly teaches we are waiting for the return of our Lord & King, Jesus.
My family's choice to eventually leave the Calvary Chapel came down to a move of the Holy Spirit that exposed this exact notion shared by a man named George Mueller:
“My brother I am a constant reader of the Bible, and I soon found out what I was taught to believe (by Darby’s doctrine) did not always agree with what my Bible said. I came to see I must either part company with John Darby, or my precious Bible, and I chose to cling to my Bible and part from Mr. Darby.” – (George Mueller, a contemporary and one time supporter of John Nelson Darby)
We chose to part with our Calvary Church pastor and congregation due to a teaching we didn't even know a name for until a couple of years later. This system is called Dispensationalism. Below is a brief video overview of Dispensationalism and its dangers as well as a letter written a number of years ago to Calvary Chapel. It is incredibly insightful and necessary.
As His bride, we - His body, His church - would NEVER dream of expecting to have any authority over Jesus! Why would we, as women, then expect to have authority over men and our husbands?
Women, do NOT fall for egalitarianism within the church.
And women, do not fall for the feminism agenda inside or outside the church.
The reality is we already have. But we absolutely have been freed from believing the lies any longer!
The sin nature of fallen woman is revealed clearly in Genesis 3:16 & Genesis 4:7.
💥Notice the pattern and allow Scripture to interpret Scripture! Our independence and our desires to control & rule over (pounce) men is a dangerous, destructive and deadly effect of the fall. This aggressive part of our nature is NOT something to be proud of, rather we are to be denying it and killing it daily, by grace and full reliance upon the Holy Spirit in us, women of God!
#ephesians5v22 #submission is beautiful in the design & economy of God! #kingdomofGod #kingdomofheaven #fittosubmit
🛑Stop believing the degraded, devaluing picture the culture has created of submission. 🛑Stop desiring #independence...the more you desire and seek #autonomy the further you are running FROM God.
Authority & power under control is provision & protection! Jesus is the ultimate picture of #headship! May we be obedient to God's commands as He has rescued us to do & trust Him for the results! His desire is to care for, provide and protect you. To love you! And He has! 🛑denying Him!
May we ask to be granted repentance and step out of the space that God designed men & husbands for! May we trust and obey God's call on us as women! May we take joy and pleasure in our God-given lives and worship our Lord in the way(s) He has instructed us! His ways lead to life, abundant & eternal life! To know Him is to know love & live! #SoliDeoGloria #coramDeo
#graceandspace for you and for others, no matter what it looks like!
💥Light exposes that which is in the dark. When Christ shines His light through His people - those in the dark will resist, flee, be angered and be offended.
John 3:19-20
And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness (♥) rather than the light because their works were evil. For eveyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.
Being of the light exposing darkness in love is an important part of how we image our Creator and how we imitate our Savior. Our culture, the fallen world in which we dwell, campaigns to instill fear by selling this false notion of "to tolerate is to love"...which the opposite is actually true. To leave someone in deception in their sin is the most UNloving thing we could do. 💥To not tell people the truth for FEAR they will probably not like you as much is self-centered pride, not love! Love rejoices with truth! Love desires that the captives be set free!
Here are a few of our cultures greivous, heinous SINFUL ways that are not only tolerated, but celebrated and fought for.
♥Autonomy/Indepence...from God ♥Ingratitude ♥Abortion ♥Women using their bodies as weapons to gain control of mens eyes, therefore gaining control of their minds. ♥Men using women for their perverted darkened lustful thoughts. ♥Re-defining what it actually means to be truly human.
♥Re-defining manhood.
♥Re-defining womanhood.
♥Re-defining parenthood.
♥Re-defining education. ♥Sex outside of marriage ♥Living together before marriage ♥Re-defining marriage as anything other than a covenantal union between one man and one woman. ♥Re-defining what a living human being is simply because they are in the beginning stages of life. ♥The Feminism Movement, to include "evangelical feminism." ♥The pursuit of happiness, not holiness. ♥Idolatry of all kinds ♥Materialism ♥The love of money
♥Not seeking the kingdom of God and His righteousness FIRST.
♥Believing our ways are better than God's ways. ♥Not knowing what it truly means to be:
a human
a man
a woman ♥Creating our own identities apart from God. ♥Not seeking truth. ♥Not living out our purpose as image bearers of God...to be fruitful and multiply. ♥The spiraling breakdown of the family. ♥Not looking to God to define what is good and not good (evil). Biblically known as doing what is right in our own eyes. ♥Telling people that God loves them just as they are...See Psalm 5:5-6 for just one example. If God loved us as we were, why Jesus & the cross? ♥The false notion that everyone is God's child.
♥Women in pulpits.
♥Men and women in pulpits "preaching" their word, NOT God's word.
♥A pastor from the pulpit declaring someone "saved" just because they raised their hand. A dangerous deception. ♥Knowing what we should do and not doing it. ♥And there are so many more....but these are just a few SINS that many in the American culture are proud of.
Just know,
There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.
Proverbs 6:16-19 ESV
Don't run from the light, run to Him! It is only Jesus who has the words of eternal life! See John 6:68! May you no longer be held captive by the devil doing his evil wicked works!
Are you proud of your independence? Are you seeking to ensure that you can take care of yourself no matter what life continues to throw your way? Are you seeking to secure for yourself, and possibly your kids, what you know no one else will?
Why would i ask you all these questions?
The answer to that question is going to sound corny and cliche, but the truth remains. i ask you these questions because i love you. I don't have to know you personally to love you, all i need to know (and i do) is that you are a fellow female in this world created by my Father and that fact is the basis for my love for you.
Let me address one quick thing before proceeding. i. i know that our grammar rules teach us that "i" is supposed to be capitalized. But, i have come to know a more important teacher than our culture and our grammar rules. This teacher, The Teacher of teachers, has taught me that I should actually be i. So, now that we have addressed the "grammatical error" let us move on!
Back to our questions about our independence and ensuring our security in this world. For the first 37 years of my life i was taught, through numerous avenues, that as a woman it was my duty and responsibility - my mission - to be independent. Meaning, able to take care of myself without the help from anyone else, especially a man. Has this been your experience as well?
i married just out of high school and almost immediately became pregnant. Long story short, two children and four years later, i filed for divorce. This left me with consequences i never saw coming as a single mom and being the sole provider for these two children. Desperate situations call for desperate measures, right? i had identified the problem as my ex-husband. It was him that was the problem, so now i just needed to find another man, not like him, but better. So the hunt was on and within two years, i married again. And unexpectedly, we ended up divorcing after 1 child and 4 years as well. Why? Well, this time along the same logic of the first divorce, i had identified the problem as my husband and thought i had found a better one than him. So of course it made perfect sense, the right thing to do was to get rid of the current husband and pursue a relationship with this "better man."
After only two years with the "better man" it became apparent that he was the problem as well. So i did the only logical thing, i re-married my second husband, again! Huh? Yeah you heard me right, i re-married husband #2. We tried much harder this second go around but it still included separations and affairs, but at least divorce was not an option.
After 11 years into our second marriage, something amazing took place! And when i say amazing that word is incredibly insufficient to communicate the reality of the transformation that took place in our lives and in our marriage. This transformation was family wide. Meaning, it did not just impact us in our marriage but it got to the very root of things influencing our lives in all arenas as we had known them.
My husband and i began to see one another differently. We began to see our roles as husband and wife differently. Our parenting style immediately changed. Our goals for our future and the immediate present transformed. It was weird and we didn't completely understand this blissful, yet complicated transition that was taking place in our lives. Right at the same time all of this was occurring at age 37, i had an urge to order a Bible online. i had professed to be a Christian since i was 16 after raising my hand to an altar call, repeating a prayer and getting baptized. i was told that i was then "saved" and no one could snatch me out of God's hands so i thought i was secure in the "church, spiritual, religion" department so from that point forward i focused on being "happy." And i have already shared my journey to "happiness."
Okay, so back to the BIG CHANGE that was taking place in our lives at 37. i got that Bible in the mail and began reading it. I get to John, chapter 3 and overheard Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus as Jesus is telling him that he must be born again in order to see AND to enter the kingdom of God. The complete shift that began to take place in my mind and my heart is truly un-explainable. i cannot put into words the complete about-face our lives have taken. The changes have been radical and immeasurable!
In short, by His mercy, God gave birth to me from above. i know how weird that sounds, but it is absolutely true! i did not even understand all of the changes that were taking place in my life until i received that Bible and began reading it. The more i read, the more i was given insight and understanding to what was taking place in me! And not just me, but my family! The more i read the Bible the more truth i understood. And the more truth i understood the more i realized how much of my life was based on lies. Beginning with the whole "independence" thing. Holy cow, how was i 37 years old and did not know that i was born dead. Dead meaning separated from God, exiled from His presence. i was not born God's child. i was born, as default, the devil's seed (child). i was born a sinner. Sinner meaning an enemy of God seeking autonomy (independence). i was born in the dark. Dark meaning influenced only by satan and sin. i was born blind. Blind meaning not able to see and know the things of God. i was born a fool. Fool meaning that i trusted myself and my thoughts and the culture and "education" all around me, whether it be what i learned in school, from my parents, from music, from television, advertising and the list could go on and on. How was i 37 years old, married, a mother of 3 teenagers and this was news to me? i never knew. Honestly, i never knew. But, as i read the Bible, my life, my choices, my trials, my tribulations, my traumas, my confusion, my circumstances all began to make sense. Perfect sense.
i won't go into details (sometimes, no, a lot of times, that is my weakness) but i will share this video with you. This message is only about an hour of your entire life to hear the truth! These are truths that God, our Creator, has authored and preserved for us to know! Truth is the only key to unlocking us from the mental prison we have been in all our lives. Truth is the light that shines in the darkness and exposes ALL THE LIES we have believed since birth! Truth is the bread we have been hungering for! Truth is the water our souls have thirsted for since we can remember! Truth is life! Truth is the freedom we have truly been longing for all our lives! Truth has a name and His name is Jesus! May He set you free like He did me and my family! To Him alone be the glory! Amen!
⚠When we wrongly identify the problem, we seek the wrong solutions.
