This week's verse...
6In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
I know of this passage quite well within my life. Within my thirty-three years on this earth, I have already lost my Maternal Grandparents, never knew my Grandfather's (but have 'felt them' near), my Mother, my Paternal Grandmother and two pregnancies, and my Paternal Great-Grandfather.
With the exception of my Grandfathers, my Maternal Grandmother (too young) and my Great-Grandfather (again, too young to understand), my Christian faith was rocked to the core from these losses. Especially the loss of my mother and my last miscarriage in 2003.
For years after my mom's passing I despised God, His love, and anything else to do with Him. I wanted nothing of Christ. He had nothing to offer me. Except pain, grief and internal agony within my spirit and my heart.
The Lord made me suffer within some very deep Valleys. I saw the Mountain tops. Every time I would get halfway back up that Mountain, it seemed that the Lord would push me off a cliff, back down to the Valley floor.
It took a few years worth of soul searching, internal 'tug-of-wars' and finally seeing God's Truths behind Satan's snares and lies that the demon fed me.
You know the kinds..."If God really loved you, He would not have taken all those people away. Especially you mother and baby". "God is punishing you for being a bratty child, so he took your mother for all the lies you told her". Those are just a couple of the thoughts that I had...The 'gem' of them all came when I lost my second pregnancy. "The Lord has taken away your child because you are not worthy of His love. An eye for an eye. You rejected Him, now He has given the ultimate punishment....Your child for His".
It took much prayer, much Scripture reading and much one-on-one with my Heavenly Father to finally realize that none of the above was true.
What is true now, as it was back then is that He will test you. He will put you through "trials by fire" and He knows that you indeed will suffer. Loss, grief, anger due to the loss, and walk through some pretty deep Valleys in order to climb to the top of that Mountain.
But never once will He forsake you. He is with you every step. Even when it seems that you are alone. Jesus Christ is there. And in the end, when your grief and suffering are over, He will be there waiting to take you in His arms and let you know that He never leaves His children to ever fully fend for themselves. And that the Mountain Top is always attainable for all.
My work is ORIGINAL...Don't be a thief.
What is written in this blog, is of the author's own originality. It contains the sole views, thoughts, and stories of this blog's author.
Showing posts with label Testimony Sunday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Testimony Sunday. Show all posts
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Testimony Sunday (Exodus 15:13)
It's certainly been a while since I have done my Sunday post. So, let's see if I can start this again to go on a regular basis.
The following Bible passage from Exodus really speaks volumes. It regards to love. Not the love of God solely, or the love of your husband or wife, or even your children. But the love for others and for mankind.
Exodus 15:13
"In your unfailing love you will lead the people you have redeemed. In your strength you will guide them to your holy dwelling."
If the above verse doesn't speak volumes to you, then I think that there is something wrong. You, we, us, the people shall show the way to the Lord through our compassion, our actions, and by showing our fellow man LOVE.
Not judgment, fire and brimstone and damnation.
When I was a small child, my grandmother, Mary, who was a very devout Catholic forced me to go to Sunday Mass, and in turn was forcing my parents to let me go, even though, they did not particularly practice the faith any longer.
As I grew, she would do the "fire and brimstone" act upon me if I had done something wrong. And would tell me that I had hurt God's heart, and that He would not accept me in to His Kingdom if I didn't stop sinning.
By adulthood, she and I would clash almost on a daily basis while she lived with me and my father after my mother's death, and his remarriage. It had gotten so bad, I finally moved out just to be free of her "saving ways".
Yes, my Grandmother loved me. No denying on that. But, she was more concerned with saving my soul then leading me with a loving heart. Instead of leading me to God and my faith in Him, she forced me to look away and turn my back.
It made her even more angry that I was angry for a long period of my life with Christ, being that He "took my mother from me". I lashed out in many ways, even to the point of cursing God.
One thing I never lost, even though I was spiritually lost, was my love of my fellow man. My faith, love, and acceptance of other how they are had never once wavered.
Today, I am over my "blue period" of having a tug-of-war with my spiritual faith. And I lead others to the Lord not through forceful means. But by telling my story of my life, and all of the blessings within it.
From my birth, where I wasn't expected to live past the first twenty-four to forty-eight hours...All the way up to most recently, my sight being restored and saved, thanks to a miraculously successful Corneal Transplant that was done against all odds to a point of most likely not being successful.
God is love. And we have been made in His image. He shows us love daily. Is it wrong that we should show the same to our fellow brothers and sisters?
The following Bible passage from Exodus really speaks volumes. It regards to love. Not the love of God solely, or the love of your husband or wife, or even your children. But the love for others and for mankind.
Exodus 15:13
"In your unfailing love you will lead the people you have redeemed. In your strength you will guide them to your holy dwelling."
If the above verse doesn't speak volumes to you, then I think that there is something wrong. You, we, us, the people shall show the way to the Lord through our compassion, our actions, and by showing our fellow man LOVE.
Not judgment, fire and brimstone and damnation.
When I was a small child, my grandmother, Mary, who was a very devout Catholic forced me to go to Sunday Mass, and in turn was forcing my parents to let me go, even though, they did not particularly practice the faith any longer.
As I grew, she would do the "fire and brimstone" act upon me if I had done something wrong. And would tell me that I had hurt God's heart, and that He would not accept me in to His Kingdom if I didn't stop sinning.
By adulthood, she and I would clash almost on a daily basis while she lived with me and my father after my mother's death, and his remarriage. It had gotten so bad, I finally moved out just to be free of her "saving ways".
Yes, my Grandmother loved me. No denying on that. But, she was more concerned with saving my soul then leading me with a loving heart. Instead of leading me to God and my faith in Him, she forced me to look away and turn my back.
It made her even more angry that I was angry for a long period of my life with Christ, being that He "took my mother from me". I lashed out in many ways, even to the point of cursing God.
One thing I never lost, even though I was spiritually lost, was my love of my fellow man. My faith, love, and acceptance of other how they are had never once wavered.
Today, I am over my "blue period" of having a tug-of-war with my spiritual faith. And I lead others to the Lord not through forceful means. But by telling my story of my life, and all of the blessings within it.
From my birth, where I wasn't expected to live past the first twenty-four to forty-eight hours...All the way up to most recently, my sight being restored and saved, thanks to a miraculously successful Corneal Transplant that was done against all odds to a point of most likely not being successful.
God is love. And we have been made in His image. He shows us love daily. Is it wrong that we should show the same to our fellow brothers and sisters?
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