March 8th!

March 8th, one of my favorite all-time days! Two of the greatest things happened to me on March 8th.

March 8, 1986 I shared half a green m&m with a boy I barely knew at Pulaski Co. High School gym- watching Casey County Rebel boys play in the District Tourney. 28 years later- that boy is my beloved husband and the father of our three great kids. 

Happy 28th Green M&M Day, Nick Ellison!

14 years later-

March 8, 2000 Literally, my life was exchanged!
Galatians 2:20
I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.

Today is my Spiritual Birth Day. : )

I am...His dwelling place.

Ezekiel 37:27

My dwelling place also will be with them; and I will be their God, and they will be My people.

He created in me, a dwelling place for Him.  As I look around and see all the things He created BUT the dwelling place for Him was in…me. – From audio of Problems, God’s Presence and Prayer with Michael Wells.

2 Corinthians 13b Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you

Galatians 2:20 Christ lives in me

Colossians 1:27 Christ in you

Romans 8:9, 11 Spirit of God dwells in you

Ephesians 3:17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith

Dread

If I live my life- dreading things to come, I will live in much dread. 

5 miles

I ran my first 5 miles since the marathon this morning.

Oh. My. Goodness

My foot didn't hurt BUT it honestly felt like the first 5 miles I had EVER run.

But.  I did it.  : )  So, amen!

Living room furniture!

Spiritual Sandpaper

My last class Advanced Discipleship Training class is in a couple of weeks and I have to write a 7 page paper, basically about what God has spoke into me not just in this class but understanding Who God is and who I am because of Him. 

This has been a journey I've been on since about 2007. Well, longer than that, I guess, but maybe I just started listening in 2007. I don't have much of a problem writing, or expressing my thoughts. I am not trained. I have no idea when I write a sentence incorrectly or correctly. But I don't journal, or blog or anything for anyone but God and...me, I guess.

Writing this paper, I have went back to my journals. I have kept a journal of some sort since I became a Christian in 2000. To write my prayers, express my thoughts, weep and wail...whatever it may be!

Now, I am seeing the fruit of this. I am seeing how God has led me. How He has become my Life and Everything. I am seeing all the people He has spoke through to me on this beautiful journey. AND how He has used me to speak to others on their beautiful journey.

Yet, my journey and their journey is interconnected and it is really OUR journey. We are all branches, on One Tree, all apart of each other and One.

We cannot go this journey alone. We must have one another. To wrap one another in love and yet be the sandpaper God uses to smooth, to remove old layers or to make more rough.

Thank you to ALL of you who have loved me- who God used as sandpaper.

Some of you God used to make me more smooth- settle and calm me, revealing truths to me.

Some of you God used to help removed OLD OLD layers of lies and unbelief and failures of the past.

Some of you, God used to roughen me up- brought the "flesh, self-life" to surface so that the process can be started again and God can smooth and remove.

Some of you were ALL of these. I am so blessed to have you in my life. So thankful for YOU.

Death to Life

2 Corinthians 4:7-12

⁷ But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves;

 ⁸ we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; 

⁹ persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 

¹⁰ always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. 

¹¹ For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 

¹² So death works in us, but life in you.

I absolutely LOVE these verses...and when I was taught, back in 2007, that "this treasure in earthen vessel" is actually Jesus...living IN ME...WOW, it rocked and changed my world! He is my Treasure!

Verses 8-10 say "we are..." "YET/BUT NOT". Because of the Treasure in me, Who is the Power of God, I am but I am not!

Frank Viola said, "When the vessel is broken the fragrance of Christ pours forth."

This is a spiritual brokenness. A "coming to the end of your own resources" brokenness. An "I can't!" brokenness. An "I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired" brokenness. 

"He implants the life of the Cross in our souls. The method by which God will work it all out is that death will bring forth life."- Warren Litzman

Through us (our physical body and our soul-mind, will and emotions) the life of Jesus is manifested (revealed and expressed). He lives in and through us, as us. 

Don't think of your suffering as something to just get through, think of it as an opportunity for God to be...well...God. To be Himself to you and in you...and through you to others. 

v. 12 So then death (your suffering, circumstances, situations...whatever it may be) is working in "you" but life to others. 

Believer, child of God- YOU ARE AN EXPRESSION of the Life of Christ.