I am a witness 3.....pitfalls and truth

 Many of the pitfalls to being a witness of the truths of God word and presenting the gospel begin with our thinking......Thinking can be wrong and it could be right! One major reason we do not present ourselves as witnesses is because we believe that we have to know it all. We have to have all the answers to the questions. Yes, this is true that we may not be able to answer some questions but we do not have to know everything. We have to be able to say that "I do not know." The truth is that what we need to know is how to present the gospel. We should always be prepared. these are steps that can be used.
 Because of our sin, we are separated from God.
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.  (Romans 3:23)
The Penalty for our sin is death.
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23)
The penalty for our sin was paid by Jesus Christ!
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)
If we repent of our sin, then confess and trust Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we will be saved from our sins!
For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.  (Romans 10:13)
...if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. (Romans 10:9,10)
The Bible tells us that a little child can understand the truth.................

Another pitfall is that we are responsible for the person being saved. This is a great lie. The Apostle Paul states in Romans, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes"  We the believer/witness have no power to save anyone, that is the job and work of the Holy Spirit. Our job is to plant seeds and water them, the Lord draws a person to salvation. This lifts a great burden from ourselves to just give the truth of the gospel. 

Our thinking can be quite skewed and we must know the truth to help us give truth!!

Being a witness 2....pitfalls and truths!

One of the largest and greatest pitfalls of being the witnesses we are called to be is FEAR. Fear is a response to a perceived real or imagine threat. This is a very natural human trait and one that is developed very early. A child is taught fear at the knees of a mother that says, "do not go too far in the water because you may drown." At the words of a father disciplines too harshly and does not show gentle love because of what could happen. Fear is developed when we do not realize that no just means there is another possibility. Fear can be expressed in so many ways and yet the end result is the exact same thing, paralysis. Fear stops us, it stops growth, it stops ideas and the imagination, it stops joy.
In the vernacular of the christian faith we are fearful to share the truths of the scriptures and Christ because we do not want to be perceived as different, as weird. We want to be accepted by the world and have our cake and eat it too. you see, it requires a choice to change, to turn our backs and minds on the things of this world and to seek after what Christ has for us.  Jesus's very own words to his disciples and subsequently to us that we are not to hold on to these things,
“Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.  For I have come to turn “‘a man against his father,  a daughter against her mother,a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law  a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household. “Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me.  Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it." 
We are also admonished to not be afraid. Fear sometimes comes from a place of ignorance and unbelief. As witnesses we have to trust implicitly in the promises that God our Saviour has made to us. We have to know and believe that God cannot fail and He does not lie. I distinctly remember we made the decision to give up everything we had and knew to go and study the scriptures. this was a decision that had fear built into it because we are so used to relying on the standards that have been set. We did not know where the money would come from for school, how we would pay for anything, put our children through school but we knew that God was asking us to take a leap of faith and follow Him. Months of prayer and preparation came and went and we knew we had only one choice to follow after God's plan. 
Fear took second place because we trusted in the God who had shone himself to us over and over. This did not mean that the tendrils of trepidation did not rear its ugly head over and over but we had to continually put it under subjection and expose it to the light of God's word and then follow through. Fear was when my husband was laid up in the hospital and we did not believe he would walk again."Don't be afraid, for I am with you. Don't be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand" The key is victorious!!!!, how can you fear when you know the victory has been won and the victor is your Father, creator God, the great I Am!

Being a witness......What does it mean?

When I was a little girl, I was the scariest little thing there was. The one thing I enjoyed the most was reading; I would devour a book in a matter of hours and it really did not matter what it was. My mother and father indulged me in this love and would buy books like crazy. One of my most fondest memories was when we would go to the port and purchase books off a ship that came in every year. I truly did not know why this sparked so much interest for me other than the books but it was so much more. There are glimpses of memories of advertisements on t.v. about the peace corps also piqued my interest. To share these thoughts with anyone at that time would have been fruitless I guess because I never did and so nothing came out of thoughts many thoughts. However, I spent time learning about different places in the world and the history of the places. This love laid dormant for so many years and many things seemed to fill that space until; a spark was lit and a hunger so deep was born that it could not be contained.
It seemed like all the good, ugly and bad things I had experienced over the years culminated into something miraculous and was actually worthy of something. All of my combined experiences and memories had a life. You see, after I was rescued form the depths from the love and grace of Jesus Christ. I became this bold, assertive person and the interest and desire of those books, places and the peace corps all came together. The greatest gift other than my salvation has been the opportunity to study the scriptures; during this time my voice was strengthen and my path made straight. "I was to be a witness", what did that mean, what does it look like? That fearful little little girl surfaced again and struggled with the thoughts of who am I?  How could I do this? Who would listen? I realized that those thoughts had to be silenced in order to carry out the mission. The only way to silence them was to place them under subjection of the truth of God's word. The same truths that He wanted me to give those those hurting people in the world, that were dying just as I had been.
Being a witness to the truth of God's word is a hard one, one that many of your family and friends will not understand. It requires everything of you, to give up things that you hold dear, to take risks that seem really stupid and to believe in the impossibilities. The struggle of fear comes daily but thankfully He casts out all fear, "if we let Him". Being a witness of the magnitude of His glory has been the most fulfilling thing in my life and I would not change it. I remember being called a "holy joe" by those closest to me but I also remember when they understood and came to a saving knowledge of Christ for themselves. What a time?
We are to be His witness to the ends of the earth; this cannot be done on our couches, in front of our televisions, in our little christian bubbles of bible study- church-home and back again. We have to move beyond our comfort zone and touch a stranger. To seek the lost.
Love God with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path; Listen He is speaking and telling you what He will have you do! I pray this encourages you to reach out and touch someone. Next I will share some real life pitfalls to being a witness!!

Mae Allen and Julie

Today, I stop all things to share a bit about from my sister, Julie Mad-Bondo and her mom, Mae Allen. Today, we are all pause to celebrate Mae Allen and her going. I met this family a few years ago and was thrilled and awed at the story of how they came to be. You see, Mae Allen shared how as a young woman she went to Africa as a missionary nurse. Now, what many people did not know was that she turned down a proposal by a young man because she would not let anything hinder her calling. She went to Africa and during her time there; adopted a beautiful baby girl, Julie.

Who would know what was in store for them? Well many years pass and many lives saved for Christ. We come to a few years back. Mom, fell and was in hospital. Julie was in Africa helping another sister in Christ with the unexpected passing of her husband a true man of God. Can I tell you how the troops rallied to be in mom's hospital room to take care of her and to support Julie and Cyrus and they ministered to others. When Julie returned I watched her care for her mother with such loving kindness. The gift that she had been given by her mother was being returned to her mom in spades. The bible tells us to "honor thy mother and father," Boy, did she do just that. The love and dedication that Julie gave to mom during this time was beautiful to watch.

If you know this family, you would know how much Mom loved Julie. Her eyes always lit up when Julie entered the room and she would have a soft smile on her face when she talked to her. Julie, struggled with whether she was always doing the right thing for mom or not, whether she was doing enough, she struggled with the balance of her taking care of her family and mom also but she was diligent to a fault. Mom's mantra has been to take care of others, to bring others to Christ. I believe it lives on in Julie, I have seen this mantle taken on by her and know that it will continue on.

One single woman, missionary nurse and one little baby girl have changed so many lives. What is God asking you to do in your life to change others and bring them to Christ? I have been fortunate to know and be a part of this family and even to ask mom to share with some young women. May we look at each day carefully and choose to change someone's life for the better.

In Honor of Mae Allen......Julie's mom!

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times"

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times".........when Charles Dickens wrote these words in the Tale of two cities, he did not realize how many time they would be repeated over the years. After celebrating eighteen years of marriage I can truly say these words about Jeff's and I's time together. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Today I look back over those years and I know that I am truly living a fairy tales. Does that mean that it is all flowers. It has required lots of hard work and dedication. We also give thanks to our Heavenly Father who has been the center of our life together. As we set up our little one bedroom apartment in Miami, I am reminded of our early days to together. We have left our family home, and are on our own. We have started this new journey and God is and has already been moving. He is showing off and we able to boast about Him in all things.

Next Chapter

On Friday morning, sitting in the school's yard praying; after dropping Jeff off at work. I am looking at the students arrive and parents leave for the day and begin to reflect on the days we were also dropping off our kids to school and leaving for the day, or all of us arriving together and beginning the school day together because we were also teachers at that specific school. Those days have changed, we are now in another city than our kids. We are what has been deemed empty nesters and like I have told Audra, our daughter on a number of occasions recently we are all learning to grow up and be adults.
This next chapter, is one of excitement, trepidation, longing, fulfillment, anxious thoughts, proud moments, too many feelings to begin to articulate. We, officially began this leg of bobbing weaving 33 days ago and we trekked 920 miles from Virginia to Florida. Now, as I sat in that school yard, so much has changed we are no longer dropping our daughter to school. She is now entering a school, to work along with a seasoned teacher, as part of her degree program. She and her father both are in the process of instilling truth into young minds.

One can never fully imagine the day, that you leave them to their own devices and pray that all that you have tried to instill takes effect. She is noticing things about the house now. For instance, last week, she called and said; "Mommy, I can't believe it, someone has put another satellite dish in our yard. Can you believe the audacity of people."  I said, "really, are you sure?" She said, "yes, there are two in the yard, DirecTV and Wildblue." I begin laughing inside and then I said, " Audra, those are ours and they have been there for three years." And then it hits me, how good children have it, and the realization that they really don't take notice of things around them. She said, "It was never any concern of mine, aren't you glad I am noticing now?" I said, "Yes, my darling......"

How many times, have we not taken notice of what the Father has done or is doing for us. We take it for granted that it will be done. Let's not ever forget,  "God sent his Son into the world. God did not send his Son to judge the world guilty. God sent his Son so that the world could be saved through his Son."
As we move to this next chapter, we are ready and prepared to partner with God to save the world........what does your net chapter hold?

Bobbing and Weaving!

As I talked with my father today and recall previous conversations to others my mind thinks about bobbing and weaving. Many people have been looking in on our lives; that is my husband's and I life and believed that we have been bobbing and weaving. What does this mean exactly? Well, it means wandering aimlessly, changing courses without a specific destination in mind; it could also look like someone going and going and just unsure.

The beautiful thing, is that once someone sits down and really looks or takes the time to connect they become fully aware of our destination. That what looks like bobbing weaving to them is really a following after what God has ordained in our lives. It is a time of preparation for the tasks that are to come. It's a recovery time after completing an assignment. I characterized our lives after trusting Christ as a couple as a roller coaster ride. Why? Because we gave god the reigns, we said to Him, "Your will be done" and we did not consider this place our home.

Our journey has been one of learning to trust God, implicitly. When we choose to follow his leading and go to University, leaving our jobs to study the scriptures; we had to believe that he would take care of our family. That He would provide, care for us. And He Did! His word tells us that He can and will do "exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us," this blew me away because I always thought that my thoughts were always abundant. My sister, Yvette, says that I have the robin Leach's dreams, "champagne wishes and caviar dreams."

I smile, because she is right but also wrong! My thoughts and dreams are abundant because I know who my Father who is!! I know what He has done and is doing in my life. That, He is Creator God! I am convinced that "I AM' has and is ordaining our steps........We are in Miami now and looking forward to the work He has for us here!!