Have you ever tasted freedom?

The Gospel revealed.

If you’ve never come across one of my blog posts before, I hope that the Spirit of God will cause you to stumble upon this one. My prayer is that God will move you to read it because I am certain that He wants to fill your heart with truth and hope. We so need His truth and hope! I feel so compelled to write what I’m about to share with you and I’m so excited as I’m typing this! My heart is ready to burst with joy but I need to take a deep breath and allow God to write through me. This is so good! Are you ready? The Gospel is such a much needed treasure for every living soul. No wonder the enemy is doing everything he can to keep us from seeing it for what it TRULY is! That’s what he did to me for 19 years and it was only by the grace of God that I finally saw the truth! I touched it and tasted it and it was better than anything I’ve ever known before! God stepped in at a point in my life when I was at my lowest. Lower than I’ve ever been. I had no hope. Everything was going so wrong, nothing fulfilled me anymore- there was no more joy for me. I felt dead, terrified, and so desperate for help. It was then that God started speaking to me clearer than ever. My heart was SO disconnected from life and it took a very desperate situation for me to stop and realize how much I needed God. I didn’t just need Him then but I’ve needed Him all along. Before, I was too caught up in living for my own glory and serving myself- too blinded to see reality. Even as I write this, I remember the fear and disappointment that weighed down my heart like heavy, rusted anchors that kept dragging me lower and lower until I reached the bottom of the deepest and darkest of oceans. Have you ever sunk to the very bottom? I have. It’s such a lonely place! I was so unhappy! I don’t even want to be reminded of what my life was like then but I decided to travel back to that period of my life for your sake. Your soul is too precious! The price paid for your freedom was too costly! And you CAN be free! What I found is so good that I can’t help but share it. You really need to read this! I hope you’re paying attention. In my misery, when I was the most alone and hopeless I’ve ever been in my life- I found Christ! Like never before! I always knew God existed, but I had no interest in finding out more. I didn’t think I needed to be forgiven. I considered myself too good to even care about what the Bible had to say. I thought I was much better than that. I COULDN’T HAVE BEEN MORE WRONG! My first memory of Him is tragic, yet so beautiful. I saw Him bruised and beaten. I saw Him crucified. Crucified! It hurt me so much to see Him that way but at the same time it made me feel so enraged for not accepting what He did for me earlier! I found Him bleeding but there was so much beauty in His eyes. When I opened my heart I realized that I did that to Him. I made Him suffer, I made Him die! Yet I was so thankful for His death! I cherished His wounds. I treasured every whip mark. I found myself at His feet, kissing them and holding them close to my heart- until His blood ran over my whole body and washed me clean. He made me whiter than snow (Psalm 51:7)! Every stain was gone, every wound was healed, every tear was wiped away from my eyes; only tears of happiness remained. I FOUND SO MUCH FREEDOM AND PURPOSE AT HIS FEET! It’s where I belonged. All I could do was cry and I wanted to keep on crying forever because it felt so good. I was free! Words fail me in expressing what it felt like…it was the most amazing experience I’ve ever lived in my entire life! I found so much love and hope and joy! HIS LOVE IS BETTER THAN LIFE. Better, stronger, and more powerful than any love I’ve ever experienced before. I wish I could explain the life I’ve found…the beauty…the happiness! Words are too limited for me to express the intensity and beauty of what it felt like to be forgiven. To know Him who loved me before I even knew Him and who gave Himself for me (Romans 5:8). IT CHANGED EVERYTHING. No one could ever do for me what Christ did! This world has nothing for me anymore. I found what I was looking for and it made me so satisfied! Oh, the joy I found!!! If you’re reading this and you don’t know Jesus Christ, please don’t miss out anymore on the life that He offers! It’s too good to pass up! SO GOOD. But don’t take my word for it, open your heart to His love and watch it change you from the inside out! You’ll NEVER be the same again! Satan will try to do anything to keep you from finding the truth, but NOTHING can separate you from the love of God (Romans 8:38-39)!!! NOT EVEN SATAN. If you’re reading this and you know Jesus Christ, please don’t allow satan to rob you of the happiness, vitality, and life that are found in Christ alone! Too many of us get so caught up in the traps of the enemy that we end up forgetting what He did for us! That’s precisely satan’s strategy. Having a relationship with God and walking with Him is NOT boring or tiresome, it’s exciting and refreshing! Don’t allow satan to take your eyes off of Jesus and direct them towards yourself! You didn’t do anything to get to where you are today! CHRIST DID. Don’t let pride take control of your heart! God gives grace to the humble, but He opposes the proud (James 4:6). So be humble that you may walk in the power of His grace! We were saved by grace through faith to a life that’s vibrant and real (Ephesians 2:8). Not a life that’s dull and without desire. It’s so easy to lose focus and look inside yourself for strength and peace. Look to God! You were saved by His grace, walk in this grace! Live in it, breathe in it, sleep in it, wake up in it, be always abiding in His grace and He will empower you to walk in the Spirit rather than your own flesh. If our mind is focused on our own flesh- we will find nothing but death, but if we focus our mind on the things of the Spirit, we can be sure of finding life and peace (Romans 8:6). Only Christ can empower you to live a life filled with strength and hope. A life of happiness and rest. Be still and remember what He’s done for you! You did nothing to deserve it so stop striving, you’re hindering the Spirit of God from doing His work in you and missing the whole point of grace- something you didn’t deserve but received anyways! Grace is God’s undeserved gift. It changes the way you relate to God. And He is the very same God today- the God that forgave you and restored you, the same God that gave you a new heart. He is EVERYTHING and all that we are is a fruit of His real and passionate love. GOD DID IT! Don’t ever forget that! This is what God spoke through the prophet Isaiah about Christ. This prophecy was fulfilled in us and we are sons and daughters of this beautiful and life-changing promise. I simply love these verses because they’re so true! I’ve come to live them out and the truth they reveal brought me such true happiness!

The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me, for the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted and to proclaim that captives will be released and prisoners will be freed. He has sent me to tell those who mourn that the time of the Lord’s favor has come, and with it, the day of God’s anger against their enemies. To all who mourn in Israel, he will give a crown of beauty for ashes, a joyous blessing instead of mourning, festive praise instead of despair. In their righteousness, they will be like great oaks that the Lord has planted for his own glory.

Isaiah 61:1-3 (NLT)

He is the God of comfort and freedom! He is our defender and our justice! He is our joy and our hope! And we are His workmanship, especially designed for His glory (Ephesians 2:10)! We need to look to Him because those who look to Him are radiant and their faces are never covered with shame (Psalm 34:5). Ever. They radiate His brilliant light! God is not a distant being, too proud to make Himself known to us. Rather, He is a Person to be known and loved in the most intimate way possible! It’s hard not to fall in love with Him when you finally get to know Him for who He really is. He took my breath away and that’s why I love Him so much! This is what the Gospel is all about. It’s TOO good to pass up…WHY WOULD YOU?

Not a second to waste.

The clock of life is ticking away.

As I was driving home one day, I couldn’t help but notice the memorial stones from a cemetery nearby. Something inside me was telling me to go and explore. It was almost like a magnetic effect, I felt as if someone was calling my name and my eyes reverted from the road to the cemetery and back. I decided to drive to the entrance and go in. Emotions of sadness coupled with reverence tugged at my heart. I wanted to take a walk, but there were no places to park, so I found myself driving around on the narrow road that surrounded the entire cemetery. My eyes fell on the names engraved on the stones and the flowers that adorned them. I drove around and stopped frequently so I could read what the engravings said. Phrases like, “beloved husband and friend,” “to my wife, gone but not forgotten,” and “to our brother, our souls are waiting to join you,” captured my attention as I was getting lost in a sea of burial stones. A sense of hopelessness washed over me but it was quickly overcome by God’s reassuring presence. The lonely stones reminded me of the reality of this life. Death is inevitable. Every living soul in this universe has or will taste death sooner or later. The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 12:7, “and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.” The Word of God is so true and powerful! Me and you are but dust in which God breathed His Spirit and gave us life. God didn’t just give us life, but He also restored us to life in Him through the cross! How beautiful and marvelous this is! I want to live my life for the One who gave me life and salvation! I want my life to leave the imprint of Christ and His love in this world. I don’t want to live my life disconnected from the reality of eternity, but I want to embrace it and live out the calling I have received with everything that’s in me! I want to touch the lives of those who are stumbling in the darkness and let the Light of God bring them back to life! This life is so short. All too often we live for ourselves and forget that this life is not about us; it’s about God! I’m thankful that through the grace of God I will spend eternity in heaven, but that’s not all. I want to live my life here on earth with a heart that’s truly devoted to Jesus Christ. Nothing else matters! I want to die to myself completely and let Christ live through me. It’s so easy to be selfish and focus only on your own needs and problems, but look around you! There are so many souls who need Christ!! He didn’t shed His blood for just me and you. The price He paid is too high and I want to honor it with my life! I pray that God will awaken our hearts to the reality of life. I feel that the Church is asleep. We are so caught up in ourselves. We think that this life is all about us when it’s NOT. It’s all about Jesus Christ!!! We need the Spirit of God to awaken us to the reality of His will. We can’t waste our lives on the things of this earth which are temporary, we need to focus on the eternal because that’s all that is left in the end. Our churches are filled with mediocre Christians who think that the Christian life is all about going to church, having a nice home, driving an expensive car, and adding a few moral ambitions to their lives. Though we profess to know God, we are distant and lukewarm. True joy is not found in a husband/wife, a career, not even in earthly success. True joy is found in Christ alone! In giving Him everything that we are. In living for Him every moment of our lives. In a life of surrender and sacrifice. In living a selfless life. I want my life to leave Christ’s eternal imprint in a powerful way! When I will close my mortal eyes that I may open them in eternity, I want my memorial stone to stand as a radical inspiration for others to live lives truly abandoned to Christ. I pray that we will not be satisfied with living an average “Christian” life, but that we will live lives of complete surrender, full of passion for Christ! So many times, actions have a more powerful impact than words. So, live your life in the Light of Christ and lead people to Him! Your life will come to an end. I wonder how many of those memorial stones marked the beginning of eternity in heaven and how many of those souls are spending eternity in hell. We have a crucial role to play in this life! The sand of time is slipping away too quickly through the hourglass of life. Are you living every day as if it were your last?

New year, old you?

 Trust in God’s plan for you this year.

Think of all the new years you’ve had in your life. Years seem to come to an end so fast. One year ends, another one begins, and we find ourselves getting caught up in this cycle. For some people, making resolutions for the new year is a good enough way to start off right. For others, the new year is new only for its first day and after that, everything goes back to normal. I don’t know what kind of person you are, but I’m the type of person who likes to make resolutions, but tends to forget them too easily. So, I assume I’m an odd combination of the two. There’s something about the routine of our lives that seems to steal our excitement and pushes us back into what we call, well, “just life.” The way we’ve always known our existence, watching our days fly by and our years vanish in the wind. We’re only left with our memories. Echoes of what we used to know. Well, this year, I plan on getting closer to God. I plan on knowing Him in new and beautiful ways. I plan on living in confidence, fully trusting God’s plan for my life. I plan on thinking of this year as “new” every day of it because I know my God’s love for me is new every morning. I won’t let the things of my past steal the joy of my present and destroy the hope of my future. When I say past, I’m not just talking about last year or many years ago. Yesterday is part of the past. This morning has “past” written all over it. A second ago, my past was unfolding. If it’s not happening right now or it hasn’t happened yet; then it’s part of the past. That’s where I want to leave it. Today, I’m going to live out what I planned; basking in the light of God’s presence upon my life. Today is the day to begin walking with God! I can just imagine the amazing things God has in store for me this year. Tomorrow will be a new and glorious day! I know every day of this year has God’s imprint on it. That, to me, is enough. I’m trusting in God’s love and faithfulness with all of my heart. I will seek His presence through prayer. Read His Word. Surrender my heart to His will. This year will bring answers to my prayers, light in the places of my life that are in need of warmth and clarity; it will bring beauty, freedom, and happiness. Isn’t happiness the one thing everyone is searching for? Believe in God’s plan for you this year! True happiness can only be found in God. I wonder what God is up to in your life this year. Let me assure you that He prepared for you moments that will take your breath away. All you have to do is be there to live them. Absorb them. Drink them in. I pray your heart will be full of faith and trust in God this year! Stop trying to live life on your own terms, allow God to take you places you’ve never even dreamed of!  This year, search for Him with all your heart and you will find Him. Did you know He actually desires to come into your life and make everything new? He doesn’t just want to give you a new year, He also wants to give you a new heart. New purpose, new life. What does God ask from you in return? Trust. Choose Him as your guide! A new beginning awaits you.