The Long & Winding Road


The Beatles have a song called “The Long and Winding Road”. The very first verse of the song reads:

The long and winding road
That leads to your door
Will never disappear
I’ve seen that road before
It always leads me here
Lead me to your door.

The path that God is taking me on feels just like this! The long and winding road that will lead me to his door is one full of hardship, temptation, joy, excitement, nerves, expectancy and unexpectancy, prayer, accountability and praise. In the last few weeks, the jealous one (satan who is jealous of Christ) has been working over time. He has tried to get into my marriage, revive eating disorder feelings, and stepped in the door at work. Some have been easier than others to press down and rebuke him in, but at the end of the day MY JESUS does prevail. I am a smart enough Christian to know he has lost in these areas so he will be trying in other areas. I have to be on my defense and be ready. Some don’t know it yet, but I am even going to be warning certain people in my life so they can head this off with me if satan tries to create road blocks with them. But see, what satan doesn’t understand is nothing is a road block. He may cause a detour for a moment, but with God I get to go around it and keep moving forward!

I received an email recently with the following scripture in it:

James 2:17     Faith By itself, If it is not accompanied By action is dead.

I love when I receive confirmations of what I am already doing, lol, it lets me know I’m on the right path. I had already had it in my heart that I needed to begin studying the word (for speaking to people while singing) and learning a repertoire of songs. God has shown me  I needed to be “ready at all times”.  (At a drama competition I was extended an invitation to sing at, I was asked to sing a second time and had nothing ready to sing.)

The next line reads “that will never disappear”. This is so true! God promises to always be there for us. No matter what, it’s us who steps away. He is always in the same place. Genesis 17:7 says, “I will make my promise to you and your descendants for generations to come as an everlasting promise. I will be your God and the God of your descendants.” Deuteronomy 4:31 says, ” The Lord your God is a merciful God. He will not abandon you, destroy you, or forget the promise to your ancestors that he swore he would keep.” God doesn’t break what He promises!

The last lines read “I’ve seen that road before It always leads me here Lead me to your door.”. How true is this? We see the road God gives us all the time, we know it’s there and yet we choose to ignore it or more often, find a way that is “easier”.  But where does that really get us? Right back where we started. Don’t be like the Isrealites and be lost in the desert for 40 years when it could of only taken 11 days to get where you needed to go! Follow the path exactly as God has laid it out for you and it will lead to HIS door, to HIS want for your life and it’s purpose. The very last line of “lead me to your door” should be our prayer to God every single day of our lives. We should continuously ask for Him to lead and direct, guide and shepherd us along our way to finding that door. Asking God for this is not a sign of weakness or lack of manhood… on the contrary, it’s the exact opposite! Showing you have the humility to ask for these things makes you more of a man than anything else in this world. It’s like asking for directions… a man who refuses to ask is being prideful because he doesn’t want to show he doesn’t know how to get somewhere (that there is actually something he doesn’t know!) God already knows what we don’t know, so you might as well ask!

Psalm 94:10-12
11The Lord knows the thoughts of man, that they are vain (empty and futile–only a breath).

1 Corinthians 3:19-21
20And again, The Lord knows the thoughts and reasonings of the [humanly] wise and recognizes how futile they are.

My current path is exciting and nerve racking at the same time. I’m overjoyed to be doing the things God has shown me to do because I know the quicker I get them completed, the quicker I can move to the next step! Then the next… then the next… it’s a whirlwind of experiences. I sort of have this “pre planning” feeling going on — I’m a planner by nature — and God keeps putting these creative ideas in my head that I can’t get on paper fast enough for the future!!!!

Advertisement

Overexposed


Some days I feel like I’m in a fog.

There is a constant haze that blurs what is in front of me
just enough that I can’t make out what it is.

I close my eyes tightly to clear away the confusion but it doesn’t go away.

Is it real, does it steal, does it try to control my soul standing still?

Darkness creeps up silently trying to hide the haze that blurs what is in front of me.

It’s not doing me a favor by covering it away because it will still be there on another day.

I’m drifting into a sleepy dream trying to  make light of the fog moving ever so slowly.

I close my eyes tightly to clear away the confusion and it goes away.

God has saved me from myself – He – has covered me,
protecting me from the darkness holding on so tightly.

© 2010 Jade Getchell

How To Write Your Personal Testimony


I Peter 3:15 says “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.”  Opportunities arise everyday to share our faith. So often, we don’t because we are scared. We are scared because we don’t know what to say. I have been in this group for a long time! Where do I even begin writing it? That’s the purpose of this blog – to explain to you how to write your testimony. I will be writing mine after this blog to share with everyone.

Here are two simple rules… Have two versions of your testimony ready! Short Version around 1 minute and Long version around 3 minutes 🙂 Your testimony is not a long research paper with an annotated bibliography! But I know most of us imagine it like that. Let’s begin at the birth of me, then move to the toddler years, moving into middle school and high school, list all the mess-ups including the name and phone number of every person involved, the college application process and the people who influenced us along the way. It’s not this intricate! Don’t make it more than you have to!

There are three parts to a personal testimony:

  1. Life before Christ – Choose a descriptive word for your life before Christ. If you were a child when you became a Christian think how your lift might have turned out without Christ.
  2. How you became a Christian – Where were you when this happen? How did you become a Christian?
  3. Life after you met Christ – Choose another descriptive word for your life as a Christian now. Describe some tangible benefit that God brings to your life today.

Make sure you don’t overemphasize the “before Christ” part. You want your focus to be on what God did for you after you accepted Him. The third part should be the most emphasized. This is the part of your testimony that should pull a person in and make them interested in hearing more. If they wanted to hear more of the first part, all they have to do is look at their own life.  Look in between the lines of conversations with other people and find the openings to begin using this powerful tool. Your personal testimony is something only you can share. Only you have experienced it exactly as you explain it or write it. Use this tool God has given you that you didn’t even have to study for!

I hope this helps. It has helped me. I am a “wordy” person to begin with. I love “fancy” language… so this will be hard word for me!

Obedience in God


Sometimes the hardest things we ever do are the things we really don’t want to do – but do because God tells us to. This is not always “extremely deep” either. Something as simple as praying for someone you don’t like… Don’t want to, but you do it because you are being faithful in obedience. Obviously, everything God says is important in the Bible. After all, HE is the one saying it! So if He repeats himself, it must be EXTREMELY important right? After a quick search I located 9 places where God discusses obeying. I know there are many more but in a 30 minute time span, 9 is a lot!

Ezekiel 20:19
19 I am the LORD your God; follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.

Leviticus 18:4
4 You must obey my laws and be careful to follow my decrees. I am the LORD your God.

Leviticus 19:37
37 ” ‘Keep all my decrees and all my laws and follow them. I am the LORD.’ “

Leviticus 20:8
8 Keep my decrees and follow them. I am the LORD, who makes you holy.

Leviticus 22:31
31 “Keep my commands and follow them. I am the LORD.

Deuteronomy 15:5
5 if only you fully obey the LORD your God and are careful to follow all these commands I am giving you today.

Deuteronomy 26:16
16 The LORD your God commands you this day to follow these decrees and laws; carefully observe them with all your heart and with all your soul.

Deuteronomy 28:1
1 If you fully obey the LORD your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations on earth.

Deuteronomy 30:8
8 You will again obey the LORD and follow all his commands I am giving you today.

Again, this is 9 times the Lord tells us to obey. The importance of listening to this command depends essentially on how well you want life to go. You can choose to make life hard by doing things YOUR way – when YOU want things – the way YOU want them done – and for YOUR benefit. Or you can choose HIS ways – in HIS timing – how HE wants them done – and for HIS glorification. At the end of the day, you only have yourself to blame if life is crappy for yourself. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying life is all peaches and cream because you choose to listen to God. There will be trials to pass (Luke 22:28 You are those who have stood by me in my trials, 2 Corinthians 8:2 Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity.)

James 1:2-3
2Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.

For those of you thinking you can do it alone, you can… for a while. And then you will fall and wonder why you are falling. Constantly battling the same things over and over… Always wondering if this is everything life has to offer you… I’m telling you it’s not, but you have to be willing to accept Jesus Christ into your hearts for those new and better things to happen. No amount of money, fame, riches, notoriety, houses, women, men, sex, status or power can make you feel complete. You will always feel like you are running in search of something else to fulfill you. In I Peter 1:24-25 Peter refers to people as grass; their glory is like flowers in a field, the grass withers away and flower fall, but the word of the Lord endures forever.

The decision is in your corner. No pressure, but you are running out of time to make a decision.