Celebration Day

One year ago, TODAY, Feb 4th, our life as we had known it was completely torn apart. Whoo Hoo!!! Cause for celebration, right?

I think so...

You see, our life WAS torn apart.  BUT, this wasn't a surprise to God. I believe it was allowed by Him. He intervened at a point that seemed good to Him. He chose at that moment in our life, to strip us down to nothing. To take us from the "broad way that leads to destruction" and put us on the "narrow road that leads to life." He took tragic circumstances and sin, and showed us who we REALLY were. We lived for ourselves. We had all that we could want, and thought He had blessed us. We had money, status, nice job, nice house, nice cars, nice clothes.... Because we were involved in our church, listened to Christian music and had lots and lots of head knowledge, we thought we were ok. We could have both the world and God, and that made us feel secure. American Christianity at its best! Galatians 5:19-21 spells out what our lives were really defined by- "Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God." I'm sure most of you would say you don't practice those things, but WE did! There are maybe a couple things on that list that didn't define us.(We just knew how to play the game). How could we ever have thought that we had LIFE? That we knew the Lord personally and intimately? We were SO deceived.

 So, on February 4, 2011, God in His sovereignty and grace, said ENOUGH! We didn't deserve it and we weren't seeking it. But, little by little, He brought us out.  First the surrender came b/c we couldn't face the circumstances without Him, and then it came b/c we realized we couldn't live a moment with out Him. He began to show us what true LIFE in Christ was all about (and it was nothing like the life we had been living). He called us to really read the Scriptures and live by what we read. To take Jesus' words literally instead of skimming over the hard stuff. Luke 9:23-26 says "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross DAILY and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels."

He called us and still is calling us to live by faith, to trust Him with every moment, every dollar, every need and every desire. He is showing us that every moment we have a choice to be yielded to the Spirit of God in our lives. He showed us further in Galatians, what the fruits of the Spirit are-"Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control" and we are witnessing those fruits being born in our lives! He is continuing to strip us of all the things that have defined us for so long and bring new life <in Him> out of it. He is teaching us to live eternally, for His Glory, and not our own. That this life is passing quickly and we have already wasted so much of it on ourselves.

I write all of this for many reasons. One, b/c as I woke up this morning, I was tempted to self-pity. It felt justified and real. But I wanted God to turn my head back to all He has done. To all the beauty that came from ashes. Second, I wanted to remember that the call to die is still the same today as it was a year ago. Jesus said in John 12:24 "Truly Truly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also." I know He was foreshadowing His own death here, but He was also saying we must follow him in that death. We must die to ourselves and our plans and live yielded to Him every moment until eternity. And Third, to be a witness to those of you who knew us then and know us now. We are living proof that Jesus truly does make all things new. There truly is power in the Blood of the Lamb. He is the Good Shepherd and longs for us to give our lives completely to Him, that we might experience His life in us. Its the "exchanged life" and its a GOOD life! Its REAL life. Even as I write this, I am praying that these words would not just be words to me. I want to believe these words in the very depths of my heart, to remember them every moment of every day. To live by them, to walk by them, and to die by them.

SO.....Today shouldn't be a day to be sad (although Satan loves to tempt me with the idea) but a day to look back and see the salvation of the Lord!

As many of my other posts, I think I'll leave you with the words of a song (really just words taken from Hosea 6:1-3)that are ringing in my head as I write :

HOSEA (by Shane and Shane)

Come let us return

He has torn us into pieces

He has injured us

Come let us return to the Lord

He will heal us

He will bandage our wounds

In just a short time He'll restore us

In just a short time He'll restore His church

So we might live

We might live in His presence

In His presence

Oh that we might know the Lord

Oh that we might know the Lord

Oh that we might know the Lord

Let us press on to know Him

Let us press hard into Him

Then as surely as the coming of the dawn

He will respond