Verse of the Week
But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.
1 Peter 3:15
1 Peter 3:15
Phrase of the Week
Use me Lord!!
#UseMeLord
In the last few weeks I returned to listening to sermons via podcast in my car on the way to work. I used to do it quite frequently, but I got lost in life and just hadn’t thought about it lately. That is until the other day. One of my favorite podcasts to listen to was the podcasts put out by “The Ramp”. So, I downloaded the newest ones to my podcast app and scanned through the titles to see what I wanted to listen to on the way to work.
One of them was titled, “Starting Points”. I was intrigued by that title because I am in a season of my life right now where I feel like I am waiting on something new to come. So, I turned that one on and headed to work. To my surprise, it really was a message about saying “Yes to God” and how each answer we give to God, whether it is a yes, or a no, is a starting point and our future is determined by that response.
If you haven’t heard about The Ramp, it is a large ministry that is focused on young people. They have multiple ministries going on, they have a school of ministry, and if you are up between 12:00 and 1:30 AM on the weekends you can catch them on Daystar and VTN.
In this podcast, Micah Woods tells about how The Ramp got started. This huge, generation impacting ministry, exists because back in 1998, Karen Wheaton said “Yes” to God when He asked her to move to Hamilton, Alabama and begin working with the youth in that community. She said that she felt too busy, too old, and not cool enough; but she obeyed God. Micah shared that she thought she was just saying yes to baking some browinies and showing up to hang out with the youth group on Wednesday nights. She had no idea where the obedience of saying yes to moving to Hamilton would take her. That decision to say yes, led to the ministry that The Ramp is today.
If you have some time, you should listen to this message. There is so much more that he shared that is absolutely worth listening to and that I just can’t write all in one post. Everything about it lined up with this chapter to me.
In fact the end of the message brings out another point that Lysa made in this chapter. On page 64 of the paperback book, Lysa says:
“Many people halfheartedly claim to be Christians, believing that because we will never be perfect this side of eternity we have an excuse to pursue that which pleases our human longings. Why not push the limits, live for the now, and worry about eternity later? The problem is that we miss the whole point of our existence, the very purpose for which we were created. God made us for the relationship of His perfect love. While we are not capable of percect performance this side of eternity, we are capable of perfect love. We can settle in our hearts that we will choose God’s love and the pursuit of a love relationship with Him above all else, no matter what comes our way."
I believe that God had a purpose for me hearing this message the same week that I was preparing to write the post for this chapter, and I believe the purpose was to not only remind myself of the very important truth’s that it held, but also to share it with you ladies. Toward the end of the message, Micah shared that in Numbers 33 God told Moses to write down their “starting points”, to record their journey.
If you were Moses, and had lived the life that he did, and God asked you to write down your journey, what is the first thing you would write down? Would you write about being raised by the Pharoh’s daughter? Would you write about living in the Egyption palace? Would you write about killing a man? Would you write about the years that the Israelites spent as Egyption Slaves?
Moses began writing with this:
“They departed from Rameses in the first month, on the fifteenth day of the first month; on the day after Passover the children of Israel went out with boldness in the sight of all the Egyptians.”
When Moses writes down the starting points of their journey, he doesn’t go back into the days of bondage to begin writing. He begins with their day of deliverance!! Micah points out in his sermon, that to put this in perspective, yes, there were 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, 40 years of their journey of deliverance, but there were over 400 years of bondage to Pharoah before that. He chose to leave out every bit of that and start with their new beginning.
Now, the other thing he talks about is how their day of deliverance came at Passover. How Moses began telling their story at Passover, or in other words, the furthest back he went, was the blood of the lamb!! (Is anyone shouting yet?)
Here’s the thing, no one is perfect. Lysa on page 70 talks about how we reflect on our life and we find all of our faults and lable ourselfs unable or unqualified. But God isn’t looking for perfection in us, He is looking for women who will go to Him, seeking forgiveness, have their faults and their failures covered by the blood of Jesus, and move on in life.
“I am a woman who says yes to God not because my emotions and reactions are always perfect. No, I say yes to God becaue He is perfectly able to forgive me, love me, remind me, challenge me, and show me how to weather the trials in ways that prove His Spirit resides in me. I remind myself often that people don’t care to meet my Jesus until they meet the reality of Jesus in my life.”
Saying yes to God doesn’t mean we are saying that we are perfect or have it all together. It isn’t saying that we will never slip up and fail at a future point down the road. It is recognizing that we can’t travel through this broken and messy life all on our own, that we need the covering of the blood of Jesus. It is also using our broken and messy life to show others that they need to meet our Jesus too!
Has God been asking you to do something that you haven’t said yes to yet, because you feel unworthy or unqualified? Take those feelings, those hurts, and those regrets to Jesus, put them under the blood and move on!! They don’t define who you are now. They don’t disqualify you from saying “Yes” now. Put them under the blood and let God use you now.
You never know how God will use you until you let Him!!
Week 5 Discussion (Head on over to the Facebook group to join in).
- What are some of the starting points in your life? Share a time when you experienced God and knew that a new journey had begun with Him!
- What do you think about Lysa’s quote: “I remind myself often that people don’t care to meet my Jesus until they meet the reality of Jesus in my life.” What does it mean to you and how do we let people meet the reality of Jesus through us?
- Read 1 Peter 3 beginning with verse 8. Saying yes to God WILL at some point in life come with some suffering. What hope can we find in 1 Peter 3 for those who are suffering for the cause of Christ.
Brenda has been married to her husband John for 11 years and is a full time working mom of a pre-teen boy (yes, you may begin praying for her now)!!
Her and her husband are currently serving as Children's Pastors at River of Life Assembly of God in Mabelvale. She also is currently helping the Women's Department with their social media sites and Online Bible Studies.
She recently re-discovered how much she enjoys crafting and DIY projects and her friend tells her that she is a kid magnet!!
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