EXPOSED (In the Past)

A few years ago, God showed me a picture of what He was doing in my life. He showed me how He was decimating the city that Hurt, Betrayal and Lies had built in my heart: not just a little, fortified stronghold, but a well-established, industrious city. The scene looked like one out of a World War II movie and the bombings of Germany. God had torn down things in me from which I never thought I would be free. However, the war didn't end there. There were survivors that needed to be found out and destroyed. I saw God slowly shining His search-light of truth and conviction into every crevice of the dark and dusty rubble of this thing that once had such power in my life. Imagining that light passing over every inch of my heart sent a shiver of shame and fear down my spine and left me with a feeling of utter nakedness.

It was then that I realized how at home I had felt living in that city. Sure it was a horrible place, but it was all I knew. I had made friends with the lies and made peace with the pain. I had developed a pretty successful lifestyle of hiding their existence when I was around other people. It was almost like driving to the quiet, peaceful suburbs for work, but always returning at the end of the day to the darkness, despair and bondage of the home these "friends" had built for me.

I didn't need to dig very deep to find that place in my heart where I knew these things were no good for me. Nevertheless, something in me wanted to leave things as they were. I was happy to have the city itself in ruins, but was equally happy to let my surviving "buddies" stay where they were. God wasn't having it. He knew that even if one stubborn, manipulative lie was left, it would one day stand up and declare, "We will rebuild!" And so the search-light continued its probing.

But why was this so difficult? Why did I want to hold onto these remnants of pain and lies that had tormented me for so long? What was keeping me from eagerly running into the light, knowing it would bring complete freedom? It's like I said, we were friends! I had welcomed them in and given them access to so much of my life long before I even realized what I was doing. We had lived together for a long time and I didn't know how to live without them. They would bring me all the comfort that only a self-loathing pity party could, and would protect me about as well as a pimp. Their exposure meant my exposure. And it felt as if their destruction would mean my destruction.

...to be continued...

Going Green,
Samantha

Posted in

Thanksgiving Week Reflections: God's Provision


It's me again! :D

I've been feeling so blessed this week. God is SO good and I'm thankful for His constant reminders of this!

On Thursday, I was struck by how amazing He is at providing! Typically, I tend to think about his provision in terms of finances but this week He showed me a different kind of provision. This Thanksgiving was only my second away from home. The first time I spent the holiday away from family was a slightly painful experience and I was the most homesick I've ever been. I was surrounded by amazing people but still, I longed for my family. As Thanksgiving approached this year, I started to dread what is normally one of my favorite holidays. I quickly realized that this was the wrong attitude and resolved to try to enjoy it. On Thursday I found myself genuinely happy and truthfully I enjoyed the day a lot. I realized that the reason it was such a great time was because I now have a family here in Joplin. I know they didn't come out of nowhere either, God provided me with them. Wow!

I remember a little saying from when I was little, "Where God guides, He provides." I'm amazed at the truth of this statement. Yes, God called me away from my family and the familiarity of home but He didn't just leave me high and dry, He provided me with another group of people to love and that love me back.

This little revelation about Him gave me more faith for the future too. I know that He doesn't call people to new things and places and let them figure out how to get there... He really does provide every step of the way and guides us daily.
Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus...
Going green,
Abby

Posted in

Thanksgiving Week Reflections: Part 1

Happy Belated Thanksgiving, Ladies!

I hope you all enjoyed a day filled with food, good company, relaxation and thankfulness! :) As I promised a few days ago, this is the first of my posts about Thanksgiving. I look at the day as an amazing opportunity to check my attitude. The very reason why we celebrate this day is to “give thanks” and I can’t think of one person who deserves more of our thanks than Jesus Christ.


I don’t know about all of you but I need many reminders of God’s goodness. Some days I’ll be in a state of awe, thinking about Jesus’ sacrifice and then other days I’ll be consumed with some petty issue and not even thank Jesus once. This frustrates me so much! How can I forget such an incredible blessing so easily? While this frustrates me, it also makes me more aware of God’s grace. What an incredibly gracious God I serve! If I had a child who stated they loved me one day and then acted like I didn’t exist the next day, I would become severely irritated. (Thankfully, this is not how God is) He has so much love and grace for us that He continually reveals Himself to us, and lavishes His love upon us. Even when we fill our hearts and minds with distractions, He brings us back to Him and he doesn’t just do this once or twice in our life, He reminds us often in creative and wonderful ways.


It’s always the times that I’m filling my mind distractions that my attitude is in need of an adjustment. So that’s one of the reasons I love Thanksgiving, because it's a great reminder of God’s love towards me. It’s a day to reflect on everything that HE has given me and it’s always a great reminder for me to pour out my thanksgiving to Him! He is so worthy of all the "thanks" that I'm capable of giving. I'm thankful for Thanksgiving (hah, that sounds funny) because it's a needed reminder of how much God has blessed me and that He is worthy of all my praise!


Thanks Jesus for being so good!


Going green,

Abby


Posted in

Thanksgiving Week Reflections: An Introduction

Greetings fellow Green-lighters!

Yes, I know that I am extremely late in posting this week. Let's just say I've had a hectic week planning a birthday party for an 8 year old and gearing up for tomorrow's feast.


I suppose that it's kind of a no-brainer for me to post about Thanksgiving this week. I know, I'm being super original. I love Thanksgiving. There are so many pleasant memories floating around in my head concerning this holiday. Memories of stuffing myself with food, having laughing fits with my brothers and sisters and of course, the Baker family tradition of making turkey paintings with our hands. Living in Joplin makes Thanksgiving a little bit different for me... I will not be spending Thanksgiving with my immediate family, and this is something that I have struggled with in the past but God has been so gracious and faithful to me during this season of my life. In the next two days, I'm planning to post some different thoughts that I’ve been mulling over for the past week or so. Stay tuned...

Going green,

Abby

Parallels

I’ve recently (this summer) started volunteering at The Bridge – a ministry to area youth. You can read more about that ministry, here. Basically, we just hang out with kids.

These kiddos…eh-hem…I mean, budding young people, are trying to figure out how to navigate life, and they’re looking to us (the older, wiser, very awesome volunteers) to figure out what that looks like. Yikes! How do you minister to teens – especially ones who maybe don’t have great examples of right and wrong at home? Do I yell at kids and teach them impatience? Do I act disinterested in the tortuous meanderings of their Middle School lives and teach them that they are unimportant? Do I tell them not to do something without explaining why and teach them that the reason for doing the right thing is not as important as just following the rules?

Today, God bopped me on the head with a bit of truth. He is always faithful to bop me (gently, this time). He pointed out all the parallels to the stuff I wrote up there.

Let’s take it from the top.

First. Jesus came to earth just to hang out with us – to teach us about himself and his Father. Do I have better things to do on Wednesday and Saturday nights, like sleep, do laundry, read a book, or watch movies with friends? Sure. “But I do it because I love these kids,” I think as I pat myself on the back. Did Jesus have better things to do than come to earth to hang out with us? Uh, yeah! He was spending eternity at his father’s right hand, ruling heaven in eternal splendor before he stepped down from his throne to become a helpless baby. He did it because he loves us.

Next. How did Jesus minister to us? Did he do it by reading us the Ten Commandments and then threatening us with negative consequences if we broke them, teaching us that by our own merit we make our way to heaven? No! He led by perfect example, teaching us to be like him. Then he willingly walked forward into his own murder so that we could spend eternity with him, not by any accomplishment of our own, but because of his merciful, unselfish grace.

My heart has been with teenagers for a long time. What God plants as a desire, He also gifts us to do. What He gifts us to do, He also equips us to do. After equipping me for this task, He also taught me about Himself. What a kind God we serve!

Going green,

-Andrea

Quietness in Submission

“A woman should learn in quietness and full submission.” – 1 Timothy 2:11.

This verse used to get under my skin more than any other verse in the bible. When I was in high school, there was a particular boy from my youth group who would always lord this verse over me. He used it to belittle me, make feel less than what I was worth, and completely made me feel captive and beaten down. I thought this verse meant complete loss of will for me as a woman. Any time I had a thought that disagreed with him, he would quickly remind me: “A woman should learn in quietness and full submission, Missy… Now do what I say.” The relationship I had with him was crippling and threatening to my soul, and the lies I learned from him I thought were truth; the meaning of this verse being one of them.

But praise be to God! He saved me from that sinful place I had put myself! The years that went by after I was rescued, God used His love to heal my ruined heart, and also to reveal and reject the lies I thought to be truth. One by one He replaced them, and again this verse was brought up. This time God wanted to show me the truth about it, instead of the manipulating definition I had believed.

A woman should learn in quietness

When I think about how God created me as a woman, I know that my heart is the home of everything. It’s the place I treasure things, it’s where I feel my emotions, where I store my dreams, and where my King lives. My heart is the key. In my heart is also the place where God teaches me, and I learn. So, if I am thinking about it that way, shouldn’t the place I learn be the place that is quiet? It’s always easier and more fruitful to study and learn in a quiet place, instead of a busy and hectic place. Learning in quietness means keeping a quiet heart. God teaches me, and I learn best from him when I’m quiet, when I’m not worrying and stressing out, when I’m not trying to take control of situations with my own hands; when I stop talking and just listen to him.

and full submission.

I looked up the definition of “submit” and it simply means to “give over or yield”. How many times has God asked us to do this for Him? To give over our desires to Him, to yield our wants to His will? Every time I do this with something precious that I’m afraid to give over, after I do yield it, I always see how it is safer with Him than me anyway. The yielding is always hard, until I see the effects of how it grows in the Father’s hands. Our acts of submission to Him, are our acts of obedience. There is always joy in obedience. And the good thing is that we always know what obedience looks like. In this season, (and the rest of our lives!) obedience looks like trusting Him with our hearts.

This verse isn’t a binding chain to throw around us to keep us bound up and pushed down; it’s a call to obedience by trusting Him in quietness and confidence to take care of our fragile hearts. We are in the safest place of all when we do that!

Going green and feeling free,

Miss.

Posted in

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)