Our Story = God's Glory!

I love hearing stories of God's redemption in people's lives and I equally love getting to share about the Lord from what He is teaching me in my life. I heard someone say that they think that one of the things we will do in Heaven is share our stories of God working in each others lives- and I agree!!

One of the reason I wanted to start this blog was not because I in anyway have all of the answers but because I am trusting that the Lord would use some of what He is teaching me to teach others. Looking through many of Paul's letters that he wrote to the various churches he talks over and over again about sharing things about our lives for God's glory. In Philippians 1:12 he writes- Now I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. At the end of Ephesians he talks of being an ambassador of Christ and asks that they pray that whenever he opens his mouth he would be declaring the gospel. Even in Galatians when Paul is talking about his argument that he got in with Peter, he shares this in order that the Galatians might gain a better understanding of the far reaching changes that the gospel should be making in each of our lives!

I love that Paul is so intentional to share about things in order to help people know God more. I pray that my life would be characterized by this! In order to do this we must pray that God would give us eyes to see above the current circumstances that we are in and ask Him to redeem these situations! Sometimes we see His redemption and oftentimes we don't. As I have written about in previous posts, 2009 was a difficult year relationally with me due to May man 2009. Over all I still don't completely understand why the Lord would have brought this guy into my life but I do see His redemption amidst my hurt and confusion and I am so thankful for it. God has used this past "relationship" to give many women the wisdom that I have gained from this circumstance and hopefully spared them some unneeded pain as well! I am so thankful for the opportunity to minister to these girls out of my weakness and I in no way hate this man or think ill of him at all. I also do not want to portray him in a bad light- he and I are both sinners and we were in a relationship. I pray that he would use whatever wisdom he gained from this "relationship" with me to minister to others and help to guide them in the way of having healthy relationships with the opposite sex.

The reason I wanted to write this is because my (wonderful!) roommate and a few others questioned my reference to this guy and were understandably concerned. I feel freedom to talk about this guy because I am not writing about him out of revenge or spite but because the Lord has truly used my time with him to show me so many valuable things that have affected my relationship with the Lord, men, and the people that I minister to. While my motives to talk about May Man 2009 might be pure (as pure as my motives can be) I can't say the same about May Man 2008 so he most likely won't be mentioned much on my blog or in conversation- why invite an opportunity to sin, right? haha


I pray that throughout all of our interactions with people we can take advantage of opportunities to have Christ glorified in our weaknesses- whether it be relationally, health-wise, financially, in fears about the future, struggles with fertility, struggles with singleness or struggles with insecurities in general. I am so thankful for the woman who have and continue to share their lives with me and are continually bringing me back to the Cross to learn more and more of the Lord and His sacrifice for us all!!

View of God

A few months ago I had the opportunity to speak alongside my staff partner Alan at Campus Outreach's New Year's Conference. We talked about Our View of God. When Alan asked me to speak with him I was so excited because I had so much to share on this subject. I didn't have a lot of knowledge to share, rather I had a lot of experience on how God was showing His commitment to challenging my wrong view of Him.


2009 was a particularly hard year for me with regards to my struggle with singleness and He made sure to continue that theme right into the conference where I had to give this very talk! AKA- the guy (wonderful May Man 2009) that I was struggling with was literally 5 doors down from me in the 25 story hotel we stayed in, lovely. Anyway, here is our talk. I haven't been able to listen to all of it because I can't stand the sound of my mix of southern/valley girl voice but if you can stand it then go for it! I hope it encourages and challenges you to really think about how we respond to every area of our life really reveals what we believe about God.


http://www.newyearsconference.org/podcasts/Our_View_of_God.mp3