Have you noticed how many people wear a cross as jewelry?  You see cross necklaces and cross earrings–gold ones and silver ones, plain ones and fancy ones.  In fact, crosses are such common accessories that we rarely stop to think of what they signify.

To the people of Jesus’ day, wearing a cross as a decoration would be about like you wearing a little electric chair on a chain around your neck or little electric chairs dangling from your ears!  It was not a shiny ornament you could hold in the palm of your hand.  It was a rough, heavy instrument of torture that Jesus had to carry on His own back.  It was a dreaded device of death to which He was nailed.  It cost Him everything.

Now it is a symbol of victory!  The cross is empty because Jesus rose from the dead and is seated at the right hand of God in Heaven.  It’s a symbol that means everything to God!

Do we really think about what happened to Jesus when we wear that cross around our neck or do we use it for just a piece of jewelry?  I admit when I saw “Passion of Christ” I went to their website and looked at all they had to sell for that movie.  They had a crown of thorns on a chain that I bought for $75 dollars.  Did I buy that for looks or did I really understand the meaning behind those crown of thorns? I knew the meaning behind it, I was and am a grounded Christian, but as I think about it I also wanted people to see it and comment on that piece of jewelry because I had never seen a necklace in that form before, so I actually bought that necklace for the wrong reason.  As I look at that crown of thorns today that I don’t wear as often anymore…I think of what Christ had to go through for me and it’s a reminder and not just a piece of jewelry anymore!

What’s your thoughts on jewelry that represent or signify what Christ did for you??

I have been having tough issues of where I should be serving in the church.  What about your issues of serving?  Do you know where God wants you?  I know that my passion is for teens and have worked with teens the past 6 years of my life, is that where God wants me?

Since starting Crosspoint I have been greeting which I love very much because I am a people person, I have been working in Fusion K-5th grade and working in with the beautiful babies, my husband and I open our home to Lifegroup on Wednesday nights which is AWESOME in itself!  Has God put me in these places of ministry because He wants me there or have I taken them on because I think I should be apart of everything in the church!

My thoughts at this point has been that God needed me to experience these other ministries to know where my true ministry is.  It didn’t mean that he wanted me to stay in some of these ministries.  During the past 8 months God has been refining me for a ministry that I am very passionate about, I feel I just wasn’t ready for that ministry when we came to Crosspoint!  God did not want me there YET…He had some refining to do on me.  Not just small stuff…he was having to skim some very ugly junk from the Hot Pot of Silver!  From the time we came to Crosspoint…I was hoping to be able to work with the Youth….NOT!  God needed to do some work on me and He was bringing others to Crosspoint that had talents and qualities to form a team?  Thank God, He doesn’t let me be in charge!  It’s His timing not ours.  Ever been there? Uh…yep!

What is God’s refinement procees?

Psalm 66:10-12 (The Message)  Used “The Message” liked it’s interpretation.

^8-12 Bless our God, O peoples!
Give him a thunderous welcome!
Didn’t he set us on the road to life?
Didn’t he keep us out of the ditch?
He trained us first,
passed us like silver through refining fires,
Brought us into hardscrabble country,
pushed us to our very limit,
Road-tested us inside and out,
took us to hell and back;
Finally he brought us
to this well-watered place.

God’s refining porocess:  First God tries us (tests, proves or examines) us. This is not the most exciting place to be when this happens in our lives.  Sometimes I feel as if God is testing me constantly, but you know I figured out that if I am constantly being tested then I need to take a step back and look at how I am responding to His test.  Am I responding  in an obedient or disobedient way to what He is putting into my life to refine me.  If I respond obediently then I have made it through that set of trials.  See it is an ongoing process because we are not what God wants us to be and will not be until we meet Him in the air.  But He is getting us ready, and at the same time you could say, He is getting us ready for the next work he has for us in this world or ministry!

He refines (makes pure or purge) out our weaknesses, our weak hearts and unfaithfulness. He is setting the fire a little hotter because through his fire our Refiner will perfect an awesome work in us.  He will take what is impure and make it pure.  He will take what is dull and make it beautiful.  He will transform us into His treasure. I can look back from when we joined Crosspoint and see where God has been transforming me through the Silver Refinement Process…yes it hurts!  Now I see where I should be ministering in our church.  (By the way…I will not tell you the Ministry that God is giving to Paul,  I and several other Crosspoint team members at this point…it is a work in progress is what I can tell you.  It’s going to be an AWESOME ministry! Woot! I’m so excited!  Sorry lost my thoughts for a moment! Ha! Here we go!

There are so many fiery flames in many of our lives.  There are disappointing situations, from minor things that irritate us to major tragedies, this is where He will make a difference.  Different flames, different fires (trials) will come and go.  In the pressure of their heat is where we we’ll see the impurities of our lives being released and rising to the top.  Then the Lord will start to skim them off, purifying us, refining us into His image.  He sometimes will have to make the fire a little hotter to cause new impurities to rise to the top.  To be exposed for what they are.  Then these too, He will skim away.  (And man have I had some impurities exposed in the last 8 months and still having them exposed)  At first He may see only a dim image of Himself as He looks into our life.  But as time goes on His image becomes clearer, more glowing, more beautiful.  We have to remember that all these trials and tribulations that we are going through for Him is to refine us and to prepare us for our ministries ahead!

Remember, (which is hard to do…because I’m a failure at it) during all these trials and tribulations that we are going through for Him is to refine us.  He never leaves us or forsakes His treasure which is us.  As long as the fire is burning He never leaves that crucible, never steps away from the fire.  He is always there to make sure every flame that reaches us is exactly the right temperature- not too hot! – to accomplish its work in our lives.  He knows the precise temperature to maintain so we don’t face more than we can bear.  He test and proves our faith, not to discredit us, but to show us how far we’ve come.  He perfects our perseverance.

The fire has been HOT under me lately…He is purging!  Getting me ready for the next level of helping in a new ministry! I’m fired up, I love Jesus, I love my Pastor and his wife, they both have ministered to me!  God put me under Pastor Dave’s preaching for a reason.  God put me at Crosspoint for a reason!  I know that reason now!  Not only have I met knew friends, but have been able to minister to some of those friends and they have ministered to me.  God has released something within me to be able to go out and invite people to come to Crosspoint and explain to them what it’s all about!  Never would I have dreamed I would get to play a major role in God’s world like He is allowing me to do!  I give Him all the praise and glory for it all!

I will leave you with this question.  Who are you in the Refiner’s picture?  Can He begin to see His image?  Who am I in the Refiner’s picture?  I’m still dim in His image…but he is skimming the impurities right off the top and I’m sure my fire will get a little hotter and little hotter until I’m obedient for that next step I take in becoming more like His image!

]]> http://lynnpittman.wordpress.com/2009/02/24/are-you-being-refined-by-the-almighty-refiner/feed/ 4 lynnpittman http://lynnpittman.wordpress.com/2009/02/02/what-is-happening-to-me/ http://lynnpittman.wordpress.com/2009/02/02/what-is-happening-to-me/#comments Mon, 02 Feb 2009 23:36:47 +0000 lynnpittman http://lynnpittman.wordpress.com/?p=150 ]]> Twittering, Facebook, MySpace, blogging, what’s next?  Seven months ago I didn’t use any of these technologies to keep up with my friends or even know about twitter and I wasn’t going to do the Facebook, MySpace thing.  I thought I was the “cool mom” just knowing how to text.  Of course, I stunk at it….because I had the number pad phone at the time.  I remember the first time I tried sending a text. lol My oldest son was a freak about Harry Potter Books, we had to do all the before midnight stuff at Books-A-Million every time a new book game out!  About 3 years ago, I decided to take Blake and his cousin and drop them off at Books-A-Million for all the festivities and would be back at midnight to pick them up.

At midnight I returned to Books-A-Million and was waiting in the parking lot, so I tried calling…no answer!  I began to start trying to text…finally after 15 minutes of trying to figure it out, I had typed out “are u n line“, my son text me back and says “yes mom we r up close to the register,” (he answers me within 2 seconds after I sent my text to him).   I text back “ok great” (taking about another 10 minutes).  Blake text back and says, “what took u so long to respond lol?”  I text back and said, “what is lol?” So you get the jest of how it was going with me learning to text!

I began texting more and  more…I couldn’t type without counting out the number of times I had to hit the number pad to make an “n” or “r”, I needed an easier solution…I needed a Verizon Black Berry.   I needed this Verizon Black Berry, so I could easily text my kids while at school if I wanted them to know something or they needed to tell me something…I needed and wanted to stay in touch with my kids.  Yep, I was breaking school rules!  So, I go and get this cool Black Berry and can’t work anything else on it!  But, I can type out some freakin text in no time!  I was pumped!

Oh, where was I, yes so in less than 6 months I have learned to twitter, set up a MySpace, Facebook page and also a blog.  My blog is quite the amateur blog…not at all close to a state of the art blog like Pastor Daves, and never will be, but they’re my feelings written down.  I never dreamed of ever using any of these technologies until our family started attending Crosspoint Community Church.  This church is so technology based it was awsomely crazy and…I wanted to stay connected with Crosspoints vision.  For me to do that was to be able to be apart of this Church in everyway possible.  Techno savvy here I come!  I set up the MySpace page worked it a little, then came the Facebook page and blog!

I have met (not face to face) but see their picture of people from all over the U.S. by twittering what I’m doing, using Facebook to send messages and MySpace to communicate to my friends.  I have seen what other pastors churches are doing to win the lost to Christ…I just stand in awe of what all is taking place in the world to win lost people to Christ.

What we can do through this type of technology, we can pray for each other at that very moment, get Bible verses from each other, know when someone is hurting and needs the prayer right then…hear words of encouragement, and laugh.  I see their picture and when they respond to me I feel as if I can actually here there voice and imagine what they sound like.  People are using this technology to find better ways their church can do more to win the unsaved to Christ.  Through these 3 types of technology I’m using…the words of others and hopefully my words are touching others lives!  How amazing that is to me!

I can honestly say, I didn’t know there really was a world outside of my “traditional church” setting!  I am not at all knocking the traditional church, there are thousands of traditional churches that God is using to draw the unsaved to Him.  But, I believe God was wanting me out of my box.  When it came to what or how others were winning souls to Christ I was oblivious to the fact that it was really happening.  I was use to the christian people just switching churches when they would get mad.  Or having the children of the church come to believe.

I’m seeing the vision Crosspoint is developing and prayers being answered by God!  God bringing servants with awesome talents to Crosspoint.…I believe He is building His team.  There is an extreme presence of God in the service, you can just feel God moving in this place.  God is going to use Crosspoint to reach lost people all over North Alabama.  I feel blessed that God is wanting to use me in Crosspoints journey and vision to win the unsaved to Christ!

God Bless and start twittering!

These are issues we have heard and have been directly commented to about.  This is what they “think” our church (Crosspoint) is about.  Why do they not have their own “building”, this is a “cult”, a “drive in…drive right up to the movie theater”, this church is not “playing by the “rules” of Christianity.”

Oh, I never knew you had to have a steeple on top of your building…please someone find that scripture for me so that I can make sure I am within the “rules” of Christianity.  And the cult thing…ha…maybe we are a cult…a cult for Christ, (don’t have to explain myself there).  Or maybe I should, I would call us bondservants of Christ.  Do you know what a bondservant is…let’s see: a slave; one who is bound to service without wages. 

Exodus 21:1-6   1 “These are the laws you are to set before them:

 2 “If you buy a Hebrew servant, he is to serve you for six years. But in the seventh year, he shall go free, without paying anything. 3 If he comes alone, he is to go free alone; but if he has a wife when he comes, she is to go with him. 4 If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the woman and her children shall belong to her master, and only the man shall go free.

 5 “But if the servant declares, ‘I love my master and my wife and children and do not want to go free,’ 6 then his master must take him before the judges. ^[a] He shall take him to the door or the doorpost and pierce his ear with an awl. Then he will be his servant for life.

As I see it, there are two “Christian” visions that compete: 1) the traditional church with its structures, programs, and leadership; and 2) the Biblical commands of Christ to go to the lost, make disciples, baptize those who believe, and teach them to observe Christ’s commandments. To me these are two worlds colliding, I’m not saying that structures, programs, are wrong, but this is what many churches base everything on without Christ being the center of the church. Maybe to some they are one and the same, but what I am learning is that they are different cultures. We SAY that our churches are about reaching the lost, but when it comes right down to it, they are following a “churchianity“ (reminds me of have my pastor might put it/not that he did) vision where the real goal is to get people to GO TO CHURCH especially those that are like the ones that are already in the church…not truly the lost…the messy people…the drug addicts…the alcoholics…the….you get it. I know, most churches would frown on such people walking in the church in this condition, this was said to someone in my family just yesterday.  Would you let them sit next to you in the pew?  So is your church actually here for #2, to go to the lost, make disciples and baptize those who believe.  Christ’s commands and vision is that His Church GO AND MAKE DISCIPLES of the nations.

So with all that in mind, yes, the church I attend meets in a movie theater (Crosspoint Community Church) which I have mentioned many times in my blog, we worship to a cool band that sometimes play secular music and video bumpers to make a realistic life situation point.  The church does what it can to reach the lost in a very different way than your traditional church.  Our pastor preaches or should I say God speaks through our pastor in a way that those who do not know Christ as their Savior can relate to what is being said.  My children, since attending Crosspoint have been able to tell me that they actually knew what our Pastor was talking about.  Do you think a person that has no idea who Jesus is can understand the King James Version of the bible?  Well, this would be the same as that same person walking into a church where the pastor uses all those Thou’s and Therefore’s …will they get it…probably not!  So don’t go slamming the church I attend or anyone else attends…until you know for a fact that you are so biblically correct you can confess that to GOD!

The way I grasp the vision for our church is NOT trying to reform believers who have spent years in traditional church settings.  I see Crosspoint as being the church that is bringing non believers off the street and into the homes via live streaming internet to hear the words of Jesus Christ and the words of HOPE to those that have messy lives. I see the real key as starting with the NEW BELIEVERS who are being won through Crosspoints Ministry and then discipled.  They don’t have to clean up their lives before they start attending church. They are the future, not those sitting in church pews.   

The church can “talk the talk” all it wants, but few of them actually (I didn’t say all) “walk the walk” and DO what Christ said.  There is so much a conflict of visions in our Churches today!  Get your thoughts about other Churches out of the center of the Church and FOCUS on the vision that GOD has set before us!

This is what Crosspoint does and it with JESUS “is” going to make an impact in our community the surrounding areas and the WORLD…so get off your high fluting church skirts and become a part of spreading the Good News of Christ to the hurting people in the world!  People are going to HELL everyday and we are sitting on our butts talking about other Churches.

Join together as Churches for this cause of winning the world to Christ.  We are doing a series call ReThink!  Let us all ReThink everything in our lives for the cause of the Kingdom! 

God Bless! 

Isaiah 55:8 8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
       neither are your ways my ways,”
       declares the LORD.

 9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
       so are my ways higher than your ways
       and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Pastor Dave used the illustration of the “Good Samaritan” to help us understand how we should and can reach the lost in our own daily walk. Read Luke 10:27-37:

27He answered: ” ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’^[a]; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’^[b]”

 28“You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”

 29But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

 30In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. 35The next day he took out two silver coins^[c] and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’

 36“Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

 37The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”
      Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

In other words there are people on a daily basis that we come in contact with, face to face in our community and through technology everyday.  We have an opportunity to share through the Internet such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and Internet Church (which Crosspoint is hosting on Sunday mornings live at http://www.mogulus.com/moviechurch). 

God ask us to love our neighbor!  He didn’t ask us to pass on the other side of the road…go down another isle in the market…turn away when meeting someone in a hallway, etc…He gives us a way even through technology, meeting new friends through Internet connections, which in turn gives us the opportunity to get to know more about these friends lives.  We find out about what is going on in there life…people are hurting.  God has given us an easy opprotunity to minister to a hurting, beaten up, hopeless, left to be forgotten people in this world.  But, do I take God up on His offer?  No, I am guilty!  I don’t embrace this person and tell them about Jesus!  Why do I let fear keep me from this?  Do you feel this way? 

8 The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.”

Have you ever felt like your life has just been ripped right out from under you and there is no where to turn…church gone…friends gone, even friends that you actually thought were your best of  friends, just vanish.  This is what happened to our family…all our friends were in the church.  Cuz you sure don’t want to hangout with non-Christians…now isn’t that right??????  Talk about this more on into my blog!

We left our church toward the end of January, God leading us to worship in our home.  I did have 2 friends and my entire family and Pauls family that stuck to us like clue during this storm.  Although, our BIGGEST and BESTEST friend was JESUS.  Even though I so love those 2 friends and our family, He was the One we needed the most!

We began worship in our home as soon as we stopped attending our other church.  We got up every Sunday morning took our showers as if attending church as we normally would have.  My hubby put all the music together every week and we jammed for 30 minutes to our favorite worship songs.  Man how AWESOME this was, Jesus was rockin in our house with us.  We played the music as loud as we wanted, clapped, raised our hands and partied with the JESUS!  Amen!  After our worship time we watched a video relating to teen issues then following this we did a Kay Arthur 40 minute study lead by my hubby!  Zachary did song worship with us, then he would go and watch a Bible based video in his room.  On Wednesday nights Paul met with our teen boys and did Bible Studies with them while Liana and I did a Bible Study together maybe this could have been call our small group time.

Our family was growing closer and closer together.  Paul and the boys became close and Liana and I became mother/daughter friends.  God had us right where he wanted us in this season of our life.  Even though it was hard we tried our best to keep our eyes on God and be obedient in everything He wanted us to do.

We never missed a Sunday or Wednesday night for 6 months in our home.  God began moving in mine and Paul’s hearts…leading us both in the direction to begin searching for a church.  We begin to visit churches and praying that God would show us the right church.  We visited 2 churches and neither one of us nor the kids felt like God was leading us to either one.

I was searching online for churches in our area and came across Crosspoint Community Church which met in the movie theater behind the Mall in Decatur, AL.  I ask Paul to view their website and see what he thought about it.   I felt like from reading and listening to Pastor Dave sermons online…that this might be a place we could check out and the kids would like.

We had our first visit in June…(during this time Blake our oldest was in Basic Training at Fort Benning) we all thought it was awesome the first Sunday we were there.  We went back again the next Sunday, and the next…we were being drawn to this church.  I began to write Blake about the church while he was at Fort Benning…he was getting excited about it just through my letters.

Let me go back…the first time we visited Crosspoint, what stood out in my mind from the whole sermon was a comment that Pastor Dave made,  ”Crosspoint is a church that wants people that no other churches want,” man that got me fired up!  Pastor Daves sermon was awesome and the worship leader and band were worshiping exactly like we had been doing at home for the past 6 months.  Think that might have been God leading us?

Well guess what, we are still there and have not visited any other churches.  We are involved as volunteers for a portable church…which is the most awesome church I have ever been in or a part of.  Crosspoint is not there for the Christians, but for the lost.  Just as Jesus didn’t come for the religious but for the lost.  Mark 2:17  17 When Jesus heard this, he told them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.”  I’m not saying they don’t love the Christian body…but they need the christian body that comes there to get up off their butts and do Gods work.  Crosspoint wants to harvest the fields that are white to harvest of Morgan County, the City of Decatur and all surrounding cities and counties.  Crosspoint, the staff and volunteers are busy about this work and put their hearts into it.  Yes, it is hard work for them and many are up and at the theater setting up by 5:00 a.m. on Sunday morning then taking down after the service in time for the theatre to open. 

God is Blessing!  Crosspoint is doing 2 services now.  Paul and I have seen it double since we began attending.

Pastor Dave works a full-time job, his job has him traveling, but he never stops ministering to people!  He feeds and ministers to his sheep!  And is fired up about winning the lost to Christ and that is his Vision and his Vision for Crosspoint. 

As I look back on our trial of 2008, I see Jesus carrying my family because there is only one set of footprints.  I see him carrying us right into the doors of Crosspoint and giving us the opportunity to serve Him and be a part of a Vision I have never seen before.  Thank you God for leading and guiding us in this time of trial. 

Another thing I see as I look back over the years and that I have learned from our storm of 2008. is that I pretty much only had christian friends.  Since being at Crosspoint I have learned and have been challenged through the scripture and God speaking through Dave that it’s ok to hangout with or have lost friends.  That’s who Jesus wants! 

It’s ok for someone to come into Crosspointchurch with their houseshoes on.  It’s ok for someone to wear blue jeans on Sunday morning, it’s ok if someone comes into the service with 8 holes in each ear, it’s ok if someone comes in with tatoo’s on their body, it’s ok if a drunk comes in reaking of alcohol, it’s ok if a homosexual comes in, it’s ok if someone with marital problems or drug users come into our church (Crosspoint) on Sunday morning because that is who Crosspoint wants. 

How am I/you suppose to witness to somebody that doesn’t know me…are they going to listen?  Yes, I can be a witness by shuving the scripture down someones throat and MAYBE some would take me up on the offer and accept Christ as their Savior, then what…will they know what to do.  But, if I/you spend your time getting to know that lost person, showing that lost person how much I/you care, devoting our time, our prayers, helping that person out in ways that no one else could do…just maybe this person is going to get to know me/you and through me/you will come to know Christ.  What an investment of our time!  AWESOME!

So this is my taking on beginning the New Year 2009.  I am only going to make one New Years Resolution.   This is…to be OBEDIENT TO GOD IN… INVESTING MY TIME in getting to know HIM more… INVESTING MY TIME into getting to know lost people and WINNING them to CHRIST!  I need your prayers…I’m human, I guarantee you I will mess this up, but keep me lifted in your prayers that I will run the race that is set before me.

Hebrews 12:1-3  1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. 2 We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith.^[a] Because of the joy^[b] awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne. 3 Think of all the hostility he endured from sinful people;^[c] then you won’t become weary and give up.

God Bless and Have a Happy and Blessed New Years 2009!

Do your children sometimes wear crazy clothes, put rings in their ears, color their hair in strange colors, and use bad language to see if you really love them?  I have to admit, I sometimes get upset at what my oldest son wears…haven’t had to worry about rings all over the body yet, strange colored hair or bad language (that I know of) lol.  Our whole culture is continually testing us to see if we really love them…don’t you think!

Before going to Crosspoint Community Church  I would look at others and say why in the world would they want to do that…is it for attention?  The recent series of “INKED” put all this in perspective for me…actually just attending Crosspoint changed my whole perspective on loving others as they are.  Why do we judge the outside?  It is not what is on the outside…but the inside!  Do they have Jesus, do they LOVE Jesus is what counts.  Have I done my part to share the love of Jesus to get others to love Him?

How about Peter and his love for Jesus. Check out this scripture John 21:15-22. 

15After breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?”

   ”Yes, Master, you know I love you.”

   Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”

 16He then asked a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”

   ”Yes, Master, you know I love you.”

   Jesus said, “Shepherd my sheep.”

 17-19Then he said it a third time: “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”

   Peter was upset that he asked for the third time, “Do you love me?” so he answered, “Master, you know everything there is to know. You’ve got to know that I love you.”

   Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. I’m telling you the very truth now: When you were young you dressed yourself and went wherever you wished, but when you get old you’ll have to stretch out your hands while someone else dresses you and takes you where you don’t want to go.” He said this to hint at the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. And then he commanded, “Follow me.”

 20-21Turning his head, Peter noticed the disciple Jesus loved following right behind. When Peter noticed him, he asked Jesus, “Master, what’s going to happen to him?”

 22-23Jesus said, “If I want him to live until I come again, what’s that to you? You—follow me.” That is how the rumor got out among the brothers that this disciple wouldn’t die. But that is not what Jesus said. He simply said, “If I want him to live until I come again, what’s that to you?”

In this passage Jesus asks Peter three times (after His crucifixion and resurrection and Peter’s recent denial of Him) whether Peter really loves Him.

I believe that these basic questions…

• Do you love Me?  (verse 15)
• Do you love Me? (verse 16)
• Do you love Me? (verse 17)…

are in agreement with Peter’s three denials of Jesus (John 13:38)

I don’t tell him enough how thankful I am for him, nor how much I love him.  God sent him to me for a reason…no one else can understand or would understand me.  I’m not saying my hubby does either but, he tolerates me!  He definitely has Galatians 5:22-23 in him.   22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control.  The funny part is, my hubby also thinks God gave me to him.  Isn’t that neat?  He saves me often from going off the deep end…sometimes I’m already in the deep murky stuff and he manages to pull me out, build my confidence, self-esteem and helps take away all those worries that I tend to have often…(yes, I know that is a sin).  When I talked about him being my hero…in my life story on this blog, on facebook and myspace…I mean’t it, he truly is.  When he took me as his wife, he mean’t every vow he said to me and he proves those to me daily.  I have never seen a man…not saying there is not one…but my hubby has always put his children before anything in this life besides Christ and myself.  Our family was built by him.  Even though our family has had life struggles and trials set before us, our faith in God and my hubby being the leader of our home  has helped us keep our eyes focused on Christ and not the situations we were in.  YES, it is definantly hard not to dwell on those difficult seasons in our life, but Jesus is our HOPE our Eternal HOPE.  This is the HOPE that we want others to know.  I can truly say there will never be another man in my life if my hubby goes to heaven before me.  I do have to admit that my hubby is…my hero #2.

My hero #1 is my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, for he died that I might be set free.

Romans 6:6-11   Could it be any clearer? Our old way of life was nailed to the cross with Christ, a decisive end to that sin-miserable life—no longer at sin’s every beck and call! What we believe is this: If we get included in Christ’s sin-conquering death, we also get included in his life-saving resurrection. We know that when Jesus was raised from the dead it was a signal of the end of death-as-the-end. Never again will death have the last word. When Jesus died, he took sin down with him, but alive he brings God down to us. From now on, think of it this way: Sin speaks a dead language that means nothing to you; God speaks your mother tongue, and you hang on every word. You are dead to sin and alive to God. That’s what Jesus did.

Now I know my blog started out pathetic, feeling sorry for myself.  But you know what?…my kids didn’t get as much this Christmas as they usually do and didn’t even whine about it…yes, everything was very hectic, but this has been a very happy and memorable Christmas for me and my family.  We have spent quality time with each other and have had church via internet at our home and celebrated Christ’s coming!  Now how can I leave this blog saying that I didn’t have a Wonderful Christmas! 

I really need to mention that I have many people who inspire me from my church, Crosspoint Community Church.  Our pastor, Dave Anderson , many friends on my twitter and facebook and the many friends on the right of my page that blog who keep me encouraged about church and the vision that our church has. 

Have you ever thought about being marked in Christ?  Our church just finished a series entitled ”INKED”, it definiately left a mark on our church and on me and my family.  Our pastor, did things in our church during this series that probably no other church in Alabama or anywhere close has ever done.  I’m quoting him, “We did it because it was THE VERY BEST WAY to communicate WHY Christ came to earth and show what our response should be.  When Christ came he left a permanent “mark” on this planet.  He left us here to continue that.”  Please follow this link to his blog and read “INKED” – IT MARKED US!  Also, read the INKED Stories that were told by some of my friends from Crosspoint.

I will leave you with CHRIST, MARKED, and to CONTINUE!

God Bless and Merry Christmas!

I truly love Christmas and the very meaning of it…Jesus.  But, every year I seem to get miserable around this time of year!  As I decorate I get more and more stressed as each ball goes on the tree, as each wreath goes on the window and as each strand of garland with lights and red bows are hung around my porch.  Grant it, I get it done.  I then feel like crap knowing it’s going to have to come down in a month! 

My Home for Christmas

Even seeing my home all lit up with spot lights, red bows, wreaths and lighted garland draped around my huge front porch, having 2 trees, one in the foyer, tall slim tree decorated in hot pinks, lime, purple and aqua blue. 

Foyer Tree

In the great room a Santa tree, of course decorated in Santa’s, all the kids stuff that was made at school, stuffed christmas animals and toys, big red and green balls and colored lights, a snow village with plenty of snow hanging from the mantle with stockings hanging from the fireplace insert, and my most favorite of all the manager scene, I still have the Christmas Blues.

Santa Tree

Snow Village

This year is even worse!  I have only bought 2 presents and I have 4 children.  Today is the 9th of December…I usually have my Christmas done by Thanksgiving or right after.  I tend to use online Christmas!  Can’t even do that this year, seeing that I have waited to late.  Does anyone have this problem?  Oh, I know I’m not the only one!

Stockings

Really…all I want for Christmas is to celebrate Jesus the Most High, Everlasting, Prince of Peace!

I would like to be relaxed and enjoy my family, some gift giving and some wonderful Christmas music with some eggnog!  That’s all I want for Christmas!

Manager Scene

Here is how I usually look at it, I feel like going into hibernation mode. I just want to curl up and sleep right thru the holidays.  I think I have seasonal affective disorder, ever what that is??  What’s even more difficult is trying to stay upbeat for my family and not bring them down, although I do tend to make them miserable while I’m putting all the decorations up.   They want to help and I’m rearranging everything they put up…not good!  As I am sitting here writing, the wind is blowing so hard, I hear decorations falling and hitting my porch!  Why is it everytime the decorations go up the wind begins to blow?   Happens every year!

While others, especially my children are counting the days until Christmas, I am counting the days until Christmas is over!  They should make a pill you can take to get rid of the Christmas blues!  I’m going to try my very best to get rid of my Christmas Blues starting now…relax and have a thankful Christmas.

Maybe I should start by saying what I’m thankful for:

1. Christ died for me that I may have eternal life with Him.
2. He changed my life when I accepted Him as my Savior.
3. God gave me a Christian Mom and Dad.
4. God gave me a very special husband that IS my hero, friend and the love of my life.
5. God gave me 4 beautiful and wonderful precious children.
6. God provided a way for me to stay home and raise my children.
7. God gave me a Pastor and Church Crosspoint Community Church that meets the needs of my family, I/we are blessed to be apart of the vision of Crosspoint…that is winning unsaved people to the Lord…Crosspoint is very serious about this vision.
8. God gave me my wonderful sisters.
9. God gave me my beautiful neices and nehews.
10. God gave me a special Mother and Father inlaw.
11. God gave me a beautiful home to live in.
12. I am thankful for the friends that have received me and my family at Crosspoint.

Well, I feel better, there is so many other things that I am thankful for and could have written, but this is a start and I will finish my list.  When God is in the picture their is no reason to feel so blue. we may be struggling with trials in our life and sometimes it’s not easy to face these trials, but who better to go through them with than our Lord Jesus Christ!  I pray that God will help me to focus on that which He has done for me and given me and take all the Christmas Blues out of my home.  How about yours?  Maybe you should make a list!

I will be praying for all you other Christmas Blues people.  I pray that each and everyone of you will, love Jesus, celebrate Jesus, love your family, relax, give your gifts and have a joyful time listening to some great Christmas music, drinking hot chocolate and eggnog!

Joy to the world, the LORD is coming!

Here I am a 23 years old, a divorcee weighing in at 90 lbs. from lack of food and depression.  I had no job, lost at the time my ex-husband was arrested for selling drugs.  I didn’t want a job, was afraid of people, had low self-esteem, felt worthless, I was so fragile I mostly just wanting to die, but was afraid to.  Being raised in church, I KNEW I would go to hell. 

Being raised in a Christian home, I knew what Jesus did for me, I wanted to do what was right, I wanted a marriage with Christ and the church in it.  I had convictions when I did all these bad things in my life, but I had problems and I was screwed up.  Satan had me and I was not willing to change.  I believe I was definitely running from God.

After the divorce I could have gone back home to my parents, but chose not to, my life was a mess.  One of my sister’s offered her home, I would be able to stay with her until I could get on my feet.  I would go on interview after interview, it terrified me to interview with anyone especially a man.  I thought…who would hire someone that looked like me, and one that was so introverted as I was, no one!  I would cry myself to sleep at night and pray for God to get me out of this mess.  You know how you pray (I know you all know what I’m talking about) and ask God to do things for you?  The only time you call on Him is in your own time of need.  That is exactly what I was doing, feeling sorry for myself begging God to fix it, but not wanting to turn over anything to Him. 

In 1984 my oldest sisters friend got me a job at Mid-South Machinery in Athens, AL (Commercial John Deere Dealer, you know those BIG yellow ones) as a receptionist.  Oh my gosh, that was crazy, I was afraid to answer the phone (seriously).  Then they expected me to use a CB radio to talk to our mechanics that were in the field working on the the heavy equipment.  Not me, no way!  As days went on I begin to feel more comfortable with my job and the people I worked with.  I was promoted within 3 months of being there!  I began to help in the parts department.  Little 90 lb. me handling dozer parts!  Then I was sent to open a store in Tuscumbia, AL…good grief, I really did that!  I was getting more and more confident in myself.  After being there for 6 months I was promoted to Office Manager working directly for the Sales Manager.

Making more money, meant back into drugs and drinking.  I was making enough money to move out of my sisters and move in with a friend I went to school with.  Eventually our apartment became known as the “Animal House!”  People all over Decatur new of our parties even people in jail, because many people would get caught leaving our apartment.  It was nothing for my roommate and I to drink a 5th of Tequila and half case to a case of beer every night…party after party after party.  The police visited our apartment frequently, because of loud parties. 

I loved my job and made sure I was able to work everyday.  So now I’m in a completely different world from being married…I was loving it!  I was happy with my job and all the new friends I was making.  I was coming out of my shell, that I had been beaten in for 5 years total.

Let me switch gears now.  Sharing this is very hard and shameful for me, but I need to tell it to the ones that are reading my blog with similar problems.   Here goes…after getting a little confidence built up in me, having big parties every night, meeting new people, having new friends.  I decided I would treat guys like I had been treated in the past.  As the saying goes “love’m and leave’m!”  I did exactly that.  

Since being saved, I have told my story to youth groups and they would gasp as I would say, “I have been with more men than I can count on both of my hands!”  I couldn’t even tell you some of those mens names because of being messed up and drunk.  Then I would follow with this, “Sex is a good thing”,

At the end of 1984 I began a new job at Delta Research, Inc., Huntsville, AL.  This was an engineering firm…contractor for the government (Missile Defense).  I started as a receptionist.  This is where I met Paul who became my best friend.  We would hang out at bars after work and drink, I was still smoking marijuanna, Paul didn’t, matter of fact none of the ones that I hung out at work with smoked it. 

Eventually I was promoted to a technical typist and had to have a securtiy clearance so I came clean of drugs, I needed to keep this job, it was the best opprotunity I had ever had.  The Defense Investigative Service came back to me after there investigation of me and told me everything that I had done from my first husband on!  Unbelievable huh!  I had never been arrested, how could they know!  I told them that I still drank but did not do any drugs anymore.  I had several conferences with them and they finally gave me my security clearance. 

I promoted to Security Manager (over classified documents) in 1985 and then in 1989 I became Office Manager.  Paul and I had been friends during this time and would do things together with a group.  In June 1988 he ask me out and our relationship went from a friendship of 4 years to falling in love.  You couldn’t seperate us from each other at that point.  The thing about our relationship was we new about one anothers dirt!  When we started dating we began talking about what we wanted in a family.  We both wanted to raise our children in church although he was a little skeptic because of the experience he had as a teen in the church.  Within a couple of months I had moved in with Paul (Madison, AL) and then on February 24, 1989 we were married.

One of the ladies that worked with us would call me into her office often and witness to me.  I would sit and listen to her, I really wanted what she had.  She was planting a seed.  I got to where I would go to her office and talk to her and would cry but never make a commitment.

I found out I was pregnant in November 1989.  I quit drinking and smoking cigarettes with the wonderful news and was ready to become a mother.  Although I did have the most miserable pregnancy anyone could ever have, I think.  I was trying to go back to college for a Computer Science degree and just couldn’t handle it being pregnant.  I worked at Delta up until my 8th month of pregnancy.  I had Blake August 21, 1990.  By the time Blake was 4 weeks old he was a very sick baby.  We were in and out of hospitals, doctors running test…finding nothing.  Paul and I decided that it would be best that I stay at home with Blake so I quit my job at Delta in 1991.  I will talk about this trial with Blake later in another post.  

We moved from Madison to Somerville in 1991 so that I could be close to my parents.  I was so ready to settle down and have a family that went to church together and able to raise their children in church.  I began visiting a church in Priceville in January 1991.  The pastor at this church was my pastor at the church I grew up in during my teen years.  My parents were very close friends with he and his wife so they knew all about what had happened in my life all those years.

I began attending worship services regularly, Sunday morning, Sunday night and Wednesday night.  Blake was just about 5 months old and attended with me on Sunday mornings.  Paul still didn’t attend, very involved in his work and wanted his time off spent with his son.

In March 1991 I was saved by Gods grace.  It changed my life, of course it didn’t fix the stuff in my life that was screwed up or twisted at that very moment, but God started changing me!  It has been a long haul I am a picture of Old Testament Israel…so disobedient and stupid.

The pastor made a visit to Paul and said something that stuck in his mind and made him think about coming to church.  That quote was “there will always be hipocrites in the church, but it is better than the alternative.”  So in 1991 our family began our life together with Christ and the church.

I had to go through some rough stuff before I would let God take control of my life.  God has brought me a long way I can see Him in it every step of it.  He picked me up and carried me many times in my 1st marriage and is still carrying me now.  God is still working on me, “I’m under construction,” and will be under construction until He takes me to be with Him.

There is so much more I could share about what I have done and where I have been in my life, but I just wanted to touch on some pieces of it.  I hope that in reading this, if you are in an abusive relationship you seek help in Gods word and others.  If you think God could never forgive you for what you have done, look back at my life one more time and see where I was and what He has done for me.  I am thankful that I gave my life to Him, I now have that loving husband, that loves God and 4 beautiful children that are letting God lead their lives also.  We all attend Crosspoint Community Church and are serving as God leads us and are very fortunate to be in a church that has a vision like Crosspoint.