Winter’s End

Yesterday I stood in my kitchen watching my son play in the snow in our backyard. It is still winter here. It’s cold and the snow continues to fall. Ice is everywhere. Yet, as I stood there, I had an overwhelming sense of spring fever. And I heard the voice of the Lord say “spring is coming”.

For many of you, the last weeks, months and years have felt like an eternal winter. It has been as through spring would never come. The soil of your life has been frozen and you have lacked seed for the planting. Your ministry, family and finances have seemed barren. Even in your efforts to plant, nothing has borne fruit. Every door has been closed, every effort seems in vain. The long winter has caused you to grow weary and discouraged. Doubt about His faithfulness has crept in. Many of you have even fallen into despair and depression. You have questioned the call on your life and the promises you once believed so passionately.

BUT SPRING IS COMING!!!!!! Frozen soil is thawing. The cold is giving way to warmth, sunshine and new growth. Barren fields will soon be covered in the brilliance of color. Now is the time to ask for seed. Ask for your strategy. Ask for divine provision and appointment. Look for the open doors and begin to plant. Pour yourself out. Declare His faithfulness. Declare your identity. Trust in His provision and guidance. And expect a harvest. Winter is coming to an end.

“Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past.
See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
and streams in the wasteland.
Isaiah 43:18 & 19

Marked

If you are a new follower, welcome and thank you for joining! Last year, I released my testimony as a short eBook. Marked is the story of how God delivered me from a lifestyle of promiscuity, addiction and depression. If you have not had a chance to download it yet, I invite you to do so. It is free and always will be. If you know of anyone who needs some hope and encouragement today, please pass it on. You can get your copy here. Once again, thanks and welcome!

See You in the New Year

Thanks for stopping by. I will be taking some time over the next few weeks to focus on what truly matters by drawing close to God and celebrating with loved ones. I will post again in the New Year. Have a blessed Christmas.

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…and start with me

Today’s post was written by Lisa Fox. Lisa is a writer I have never met in person but for whom I have great respect and admiration. I appreciate her heart, her passion and her desire for the deeper things of God both in her personal life and in the lives of those around her. I know you will be blessed by what she has to say. You can read more of her writing at her blog, The Art of Pursuit.

It has been a prayer of mine for many years to see a revival in my lifetime like the revivals in the past. I read stories of the Great Awakenings, the Welsh Revival, the Layman’s Revival, Azusa Street, and the rest and my prayer is, “God, do that here!”

I attempted to sit and write about the ingredients of revival, but as I began to read the promises of Scripture and the stories of revivals past I found it impossible to try to clinically lay out a series of sure-fire steps to revival.

I read of the young man in the Hebrides at a prayer service called by two elderly ladies who were concerned about the lack of young people in the churches. The young man said, “It seems to me to be so much humbug to be praying as we are praying, to be waiting as we are waiting, if we ourselves are not rightly related to God.” He then lifted his hands asking, ”God, are my hands clean? Is my heart pure?” At that moment the power of God fell on that place and a revival began that completely transformed an entire community.

No wordy preacher delivered a convicting sermon that all heard, no great evangelist organized a crusade. The Spirit of God swept, with no human help, through the towns and villages in a day. Farmers plowing in their fields came under conviction of sin in an instant and fell to their knees to repent. Drunks in the pub were struck with the weight of their sin and got on their faces to cry for the mercy of God. Travelers on the road were overwhelmed with the glory of God and cried out to be saved. All this because a church stopped praying for holiness in others and began praying that they would be holy.

No, my friends, I cannot spell out any ingredient of revival beyond what God promised in the oft-quoted verse in Chronicles, “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sins and heal their land.”

It seems the important thing – the only important thing – is for you and I to have the same heart as that young Scotch man. “God, are my hands clean? Is my heart pure?” For when you and I are revived, we become conduits of revival. When we, the people of God, consecrate ourselves to holiness and are convicted of our sins, we open the heavens over our communities for God to convict of sin. But until you and I are revived, no amount of studying, of organizing, of waiting, or of wanting will pave the way for revival in our generation. Until we – Christ’s Church – are holy, our culture will remain unrepentant. That is the simple way of it.

The world won’t come to find life in a dead church. We gripe and complain about the state of our churches, but I find, when I look at my own heart, that it is no better than this “compromising Church” that distresses me so much. I AM the Church! Do I live in victory and authority? Do I resist temptation? Are my words life and truth? Are my actions mercy and kindness? Are my thoughts purity and holiness? Am I full to overflowing with the fiery power of the Holy Spirit? Am I ablaze with message of the Gospel? Am I a conduit of God’s salvation to the world? Have I lived another day comfortably doing everything I please and nothing I am commanded? Have I even simply stopped once today to ask, “Are my hands clean? Is my heart pure?”

I’ll say it once more: I AM the Church. Yet I am overflowing with vices and weakness and complacent hypocrisy. I am a fat, lazy Christian unwilling to give up comfort to save one soul from Hell. How could I be a Christian willing to be martyred gloriously for Christ if I can even resist a temptation for His sake? Until I, myself, learn to be that spotless Bride, that advancing Army, that royal Priesthood, that holy Nation, my generation will go unrevived. So, God, make my hands clean. Make my heart pure!

If I want revival, I must be revived. So God, bring a revival…and start it in me.

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I wrote this early in October and I believe it is timely in the midst of 40 Days. Please take time this weekend to truly seek Him.

Fire Starter

Do you remember what it felt like to be a new Christian? Full of hope, love and joy. Knowing that things were never going to be the same and that you had been given a gift of immeasurable worth. Hunger began to grow and it was as if you would never be able to get enough of God.

His presence was all you desired. His Word came alive to you and changed you in ways you never dreamed possible. Your old life began to fade away and was replaced with an incredible journey with new challenges and revelation around every corner.

But before long, the newness began to wear off. Everyday life continued to invade this new found passion. Your friends and family were not able to understand what had changed in you and began to distance themselves. The God you had known to be so loving, compassionate and powerful…

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Day Off

Hey Everyone!

I am taking the day off to recharge today, but of course I wouldn’t want to leave you without a post. I have made some changes to the blog and updated it to include not just the writing, but also podcasts of my sermons and a page for an upcoming theme later this month. The Podcasts Page will be updated regularly.

Also, for those of you who have not yet downloaded your free copy of Marked: the story of a desperate girl and the God who redeemed her, it is still available. It will remain on the page and will always be free, so please feel free to invite your friends to download their copy as well!

To listen to the sermons, visit the Podcasts Page

To download Marked, visit the Free eBook Page

To learn about 40 Days of Awakening, click here.

Have a great day!

From Bondage to Blessing

I have been criticized for my rigid stance on purity. When I wrote What’s so Magic About Mike? those who disagreed with my position believed that I was writing from a place of judgment and condemnation. The truth is, my desire to see the church living in purity has nothing to do with judging and everything to do with wanting to see freedom for the people of God. Still, many may wonder who I am to be challenging the church to such a standard.

I am the wife of a recovering pornography addict.

I am writing to the woman who feels ugly, rejected and worthless. The one who has come to hate what she sees when she looks in the mirror because she will never be able to measure up to the images in her husband’s mind.

To the young man or woman who is trapped by sexual addiction and feels powerless, ashamed and hopeless: I write for you.

I know the destructive power of sexual addiction. However, I also know that the power of my God far exceeds anything you are trapped by today. As someone who was once bound and is now free, please believe me when I say that if you do not give up the fight, you will emerge victorious.

I was a single mother at the age of eighteen.

Young woman who is contemplating abortion, I write for you. I know the fear in your heart but even in this, God has not forsaken you. If you seek Him, He will be found by you. Your life is not over. There is still hope and a future for you. It is not too late for you to become everything you were born to be and it starts with making the right choice now.

I struggled with issues of purity from the ages of seven to twenty-three.

At a very young age, my innocence was lost. I was never abused as a child, but I carried an overwhelming sense of worthlessness and impurity. Over time, it became so much a part of who I was that I could not break free.

To the one who has had your innocence stolen, I am writing for you. God can restore all things, even purity. In His eyes, you are not worthless or beyond redemption. If you will call on the name of Jesus, He will cover you with His purity and restore to you what has been lost.

I am now free from sexual sin, addiction and bondage.

Freedom did not come quickly or without cost, but today my husband and I are both walking in purity and wholeness.

To anyone who has quit believing that you will ever be able to overcome this struggle, I will always write for you. Freedom is a promise for the children of God and I will continue to write it, preach it and pray for it until I see it. Today, if you are trapped and struggling, please feel free to email me. I would love to pray for you.

To read my story of struggle and deliverance, visit the Free eBook page and click to download my full testimony Marked: the story of a desperate girl and the God who redeemed her.

Marked: the story of a desperate girl and the God who redeemed her

Well, it’s finally here!

My full testimony is now available in the form of a FREE eBook.

I pray that it brings hope and healing to your life.

To download your copy, visit the Marked: A Free eBook page above and click the link.

Thank you again for reading.

Stay Tuned…

I would like to take a moment and thank everyone who has been reading. I pray that you have been challenged, encouraged and blessed.

Years ago, when God called me to preach, it was with the understanding that everything I would endure in life would eventually offer hope to someone. I made myself willing to walk anywhere God wanted me to walk in order to be a witness to His love, grace and power. I do not preach or write from hypothetical scenarios, I talk about where I have been and what God has done.

Three years ago, I gave my testimony for the first time. I have always woven bits and pieces of my story into my messages, but God was asking me to tell my whole story. It was difficult for me to do since, like many people, I have a past that I am not proud of. However, it is my story that is a true testimony of the power of God to transform and redeem any life. It is what fuels my passion to believe that it is never too late. It is what drives me to point others to that redemption. I know from personal experience that you can never fall too far for God to reach you. You can never be in too deep for Him to pull you up. You can never sin too much to be covered by grace.

If anyone needed to hear that, it was me. God turned me around and set me on a path that has led to more freedom, blessing and fulfillment than I ever thought possible.

I would like to share that journey with you. I pray that my story will give you hope in your situation, faith to move your mountain, and perseverance to endure your trials. Next week, I will be releasing my testimony in the form of a FREE ebook. If you need to be inspired by the real-life power of God, I encourage you to download it. If you know someone who needs to know the God who can move any mountain (and who doesn’t), I encourage you to share it with everyone you can think of. Keep your eyes open for the release of the ebook and instructions for download!
Again, thank you for your support and I pray my story will touch your life.

Go Ahead: Offend Me

19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions  21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. Galatians 5:19-21 NIV

You can call it a weakness. A struggle. A character flaw. An addiction. A slip. A mistake. Call it whatever you want but sin by any other name is still sin. And sin still carries consequences.

I regret that, as a young believer, I did not more carefully consider and weigh the effects my sin would have on my life, my marriage and my future. Had I been more aware of the ramifications, I would likely have made different choices in the moment.

I needed to realize that sexual sin in any form would taint my understanding of true intimacy and hinder my ability to remain pure in mind, heart and life.

Allowing lust to run rampant within the privacy of my heart and mind would lead me to a place of discontentment with everything I was and everything I had because I thought it never compared to what I was lusting after.

Letting images into my mind and home of a questionable nature would eventually wear down my self-worth and cause me to feel ugly, inadequate and insecure. Comparing myself to others has become a way of life that, to this day, I am struggling to overcome.

Holding unforgiveness and judgment in my heart has led me down an ugly path of bitterness, jealousy and eventually hatred. I have been unable to see everything God has done for me because I have been so focused on what he was doing for those who, in my opinion, did not deserve it.

Sin kills. When we refuse to take responsibility, call it what it is and turn from it, we are opening a door to have the very life drained from within us. Death follows sin and the only way to get back on to the path of life is to return to God, agree with what he names sin, repent and ask for the strength to overcome.

For many of you, this is likely one of the few times you have ever been faced with such a black and white take on the matter. You have likely been told that your sin is not a big deal since we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. That there is grace for you. That God will convict you in His time if what you are doing is really that bad. For that I am sorry.

Yes-God forgives when we ask for forgiveness. But the consequences will remain. And, most importantly, holding on to our sin drives a wedge between us and God. No sin is worth that.

Church, the time has come to stop offering up a weak, watered-down version of the Gospel that is not only omitting the truth but is ultimately setting us up to fail. We need bold messages that will call our sin out and hold us accountable for our growth and holiness. We need to be challenged and confronted even if we get offended. In fact, we need to get offended.

Pastors, preachers and teachers: walk in your authority. Hold your calling in such high regard that nothing can convince you to compromise the truth. Fear God over man. Love the church enough to make us uncomfortable for the sake of helping us become who God created us to be. Call the church back to purity and watch God break out the way we desire for Him to break out.