Tag: life

A family gathered around a lit Christmas tree in a cozy room
Christian living, Family, Seasonal

A Christmas Story – The Gift

blossomingheartsstudio

This post gently touches on themes of abuse. Take your time, and be kind to yourself as you read.

It was Christmas Eve in 1983. My father had left suddenly the summer before. My destitute mother molded biscuits at Hardees each morning to make enough money to pay rent and buy food to feed four, hungry children. Our run-down, shotgun house in Southern Indiana was the only housing she could afford.

Winter winds threatened to rip through the heavy plastic my mother had duck-taped over the drafty, cracked windows, but my mother’s determination had thwarted the cold, at least partly. We had no money for heat. A simple gas stove would be lit throughout the day, in intervals, so as to warm the downtown stairs to a bearable temperature, but not too much as to run up the gas bill.

My mother had written to her relatives for a place to go or for some money to help. The reply had been a scathing rebuke from one of them. “How could a pastor’s wife get a divorce. So, no, you aren’t welcome here.” My father’s child support checks never showed either. No money. No support.

We were alone.

I had become an emotional wreck, unable to go to high school, because of undiagnosed illness. Sadly, I knew Christmas would come and go with no gifts, though I held in my heart a secret hope of one gift – a boom box. I told no one. I knew my mother would not be able to afford anything, even though she tried to force smiles and decorated a tree as she had always done.

Christmas Eve had come – along with hard, cold darkness which filled the night. My mom gathered my siblings and wrapped them in the warmest clothing we had. She looked back to offer me one last chance to join them, but I waved them on, as they hurried out the door. The firemen in the neighborhood were throwing a Christmas party for all the children on the block, and so my mother had taken my siblings to celebrate.

A little while later, my family hustled back in the house, with unwrapped gifts shoved under their arms and grins from ear to ear. “For you,” my mother said, as she handed me a rectangular, wrapped box. As I took it, the weight caught me off guard. Hurriedly, I unwrapped it, to uncover just what I had wished for – a new, shining (at least that’s how I remember it) boom box!

How did anyone know?

Tears welled in my eyes, as the realization hit me. In the middle of our dire circumstances, God loved me and cared for that simple heart’s desire.

For years, I’ve held that memory close to my heart, as I’ve seen God’s loving faithfulness again and again and again throughout my life.

As you face this Christmas, maybe you are facing loses of family or friendships. We are. May you are processing through unmet expectations or strained relationships. We are too. Maybe you have survived horrific abuse at this time of the year. Me too. I’m a childhood survivor of just about every abuse imaginable. I get the depression and trauma holidays can bring. Maybe there is sickness or disease or even death that has afflicted you or your loved ones this year. We have walked that road as well, especially in recent years.

Christ didn’t come as a King to fix the world. He didn’t come to make our worlds tidy and clean and neat. He didn’t come to fill our trees with presents, though sometimes He chooses to give us that special present to show us how much He cares.

He came to give.

To give Himself.

Lowly. Humbly. Freely.

And He gave us all He had – everything. Vulnerably. Tenderly. Knowing that He would lay down His very life for the sake of love, so that we can live in and through Him forever.

He came to comfort those who are mourning – to give beauty for ashes, a crown of glory, instead of Spirit of despair. He came to deliver us from darkness and bring us into His glorious LIGHT.

Wherever you are this Christmas, whatever you are going through, I want you to know that God sees you. He loves you. He came for YOU. And there is HOPE. For He is our HOPE. And maybe I needed to hear that too.

Much Love. And Merry Christmas.

A group of people with arms raised on a beach at dusk
Christian living, Family, God encounters, Uncategorized

Living the Free Life

blossomingheartsstudio

Gal. 2:20. “I have been crucified with Christ; 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 for me.” NKJV

Romans 6:4 “Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be in the likeness of his resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be rendered powerless so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin, since a person who has died is freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him, because we know that Christ, having been raised from the dead, will not die again. Death no longer rules over him.

 Eph. 2:6 “And He raised us up together with Him [when we believed], and seated us with Him in the heavenly places, [because we are] in Christ Jesus, [and He did this] so that in the ages to come He might [clearly] show the immeasurable and unsurpassed riches of His grace in [His] kindness toward us in Christ Jesus [by providing for our redemption].”AMP

Several months ago, the subject of crucified with Christ, buried with Christ, raised with Christ, and reign with Christ were in the airways.  In other words, when God is highlighting something to me, I often hear it from many directions in a short period of time through various means.  

In the past, the first two aspects of the process to living an overcoming life, crucified and buried with Christ, have made me squirm a bit.

Who wants to be crucified and buried?  I mean Jesus already did so, so what does that even mean?

My friend, Rebecca Davis, in her book series “Untwisting Scriptures”, is the expert on untangling things – a shameless plug for her, because her books are so helpful.  The concept she teaches about basically comes down to read scripture in the context of who it is written to and the time it is written, keeping it in context (not pulling out a scripture and manipulating it to say what you want it to say).  

Secondly, God wrote the Bible.  Not the other way around.  So, He is above it.  To me, this means that if a scripture is taken by a person and used to control someone else, like “submission” scriptures that don’t line up with the character and nature of God, who never manipulates us to control us, because He is love, then the person using the scripture wrongly is in error.  Not the victim.  

Just because you flap a Bible around quoting random verses doesn’t mean you are living the truth of it, which in essence is love.  

This particular concept of being crucified and buried with Christ has been very tangled up for me in the process of growing up in an extremely abusive church background.  Yet, even today, I’ve heard messages that have manipulated those concept to mean it’s a works thing of dying to myself, denying myself (Their be times I need to deny myself something – like that slice of Key lime pie yesterday.), crucifying my flesh, even so far as someone telling me to kill (murder) parts of me so that I could be dead to myself and alive to Christ.  Jesus wouldn’t murder me, so why would I do that to myself?    

The process of what Jesus did at the cross as far as our salvation and becoming a new creation was and is a completed work at the cross.  “It is finished.”  It is err to add anything of our efforts or works to earn our salvation.  It is complete.  Done.  Finished.  

And yet, we still have to receive that finish work into every area and part of our lives.  This is the  “working out our salvation”.  It is in the receiving of truth of what Jesus has done for us at the cross into every area, into ever layer of our lives, thereby rejecting the lies.   

So, recently as these concepts were swirling around in my head, and I was processing through discomfort, I believe the Holy Spirit began to explain a slightly different way of looking at this concept that I had been taught.  It actually is the process of any inner healing with Him.  The following is what I heard whispered in my heart.

Crucified with Christ – I allow Jesus to press into my pain, my junk, my hiding places where I have tried to self-protect.  I allow Him to bring truth, love, healing.  I submit myself to the finished work of the cross.  

He bore my sin, my shame, unforgiveness, all the wrongs done to me and others, my fears, my pain, my suffering, my anger, all it – He became sin, and took it on Himself there, so that I can now leave it there.  

I allow Him into those strongholds, each level, each layer, every place.  It is a process, which can take a lot of time, depending on the levels of abuse and pain. I press into His pain. I allow His suffering love to penetrate all of me.  This is a process.  

It may look like Him leading me to a very painful memory, and Him showing me where he was in that place with me – the real truth about what happened, how He saw me in it, where He was, what He was doing.  Then, me making the choice to release it all to Him, and believe the truth, allowing Him to heal me.

It may look like Him asking me to love someone who has deeply hurt me, by choosing to forgive them, and release them to Him.  

It may mean His Holy Spirit showing a place of pride that I acted in and choosing into asking forgiveness for hurt I caused someone else.  

I honestly don’t think we can truly become all Christ has called us to be, fully understanding who we are, if we are still hiding, if there are still hurts, wounds, lies, and pain lodged in our hearts. It’s all a continuing process, but this first step cannot be by-passed.

Buried with Christ – When I allow Jesus into those places of pain, He literally buries the pain, the shame, the fears, the hate, and all the lies I believed about myself, others, and Him in His great love. 

When I think of those memories, those places that were once horror to me, now I have complete peace.  They have no power over me anymore, no power to hurt me anymore.  Those lies, sins are literally buried.  They are dead.  They have no ability to affect me in anyway, anymore.  I am truly free to live in Him.  

Raised or resurrected with Christ  – Now, when He speaks identity over me of who I am it sticks more, because I’m a new creation.  I literally am.  

Now, I can fully begin to embrace the identity of Christ, because all the junk has been put to rest. RIP.  

Now, I am resurrected into all the fullness of my identity in Christ.  My Father is fully in me.  I am fully in Him.  Everything Jesus is now is in me, and I have all the power, authority, dominion that the resurrected Christ has, because I am His daughter, a daughter of the King of Kings.  

This is where He really begins speaking to you those “Who you are words”, and they can go deep, molding your identity of who you were created to be!  This will be unique to you, because child of God has different gifts, abilities, and destinies in Him.

I’ve included at the end some identity statements taken straight from God’s word.  Let Him make those words personal to you.  

Reign with Christ, Seated with Him in heavenly places – When we begin to truly understand who we are in Christ, who He has created us to be, then we begin to rule.  We begin to reign.  Not in the sweet by and by, but here and now.  We “are” already seated with Christ in heavenly realms.  We are a royal priesthood.  

 As we embrace fully what Jesus Christ finished for us, then we begin to walk out that identity, and take authority and action on who we are in Christ.  

Sometimes, this honestly can be a little scary, because your Father is relentless in you truly becoming who He created you to be, but He does it because He loves us with a relentless, all powerful love.  He won’t stop ever loving us into fully becoming mature children who are free to be all He created us to be.  

Crucified, buried, resurrected, and reigning is the process of stepping into the fullness of our identity in Christ.  It is both finished and a process of receiving.  

His empowering grace is sufficient to help to become that person who reigns with Him – the person He has already created us to be.  

Thank you Jesus for what you paid to give me.  

Happy Resurrection Day!!!

I am complete in Him Who is the head over all rule and authority—of every angelic and earthly power (Colossians 2:10).

I am alive with Christ (Ephesians 2:5).

I am free from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:2).

I am far from oppression, and will not live in fear (Isaiah 54:14).

I am born of God, and the evil one does not touch me (1 John 5:18).

I am holy and without blame before Him in love (Ephesians 1:4; 1 Peter 1:16).

I have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16; Philippians 2:5).

I have the peace of God that surpasses all understanding (Philippians 4:7).

The Spirit of God, who is greater than the enemy in the world, lives in me (1 John 4:4).

I have received abundant grace and the gift of righteousness and reign in life through Jesus Christ (Romans 5:17).

I have received the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Jesus, the eyes of my heart enlightened, so that I know the hope of having life in Christ (Ephesians 1:17-18).

I have received the power of the Holy Spirit and He can do miraculous things through me.I have authority and power over the enemy in this world (Mark 16:17-18; Luke 10:17-19).

I am renewed in the knowledge of God and no longer want to live in my old ways or nature before I accepted Christ (Colossians 3:9-10).

I am merciful, I do not judge others, and I forgive quickly. As I do this by God’s grace, He blesses my life (Luke 6:36-38).

God supplies all of my needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19).

In all circumstances I live by faith in God and extinguish all the flaming darts (attacks) of the enemy (Ephesians 6:16).

I can do whatever I need to do in life through Christ Jesus who gives me strength (Philippians 4:13).

I am chosen by God who called me out of the darkness of sin and into the light and life of Christ so I can proclaim the excellence and greatness of who He is (1 Peter 2:9).

I am born again—spiritually transformed, renewed and set apart for God’s purpose—through the living and everlasting word of God (1 Peter 1:23).

I am God’s workmanship, created in Christ to do good works that He has prepared for me to do (Ephesians 2:10).

I am a new creation in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17).

In Christ, I am dead to sin—my relationship to it is broken—and alive to God—living in unbroken fellowship with Him (Romans 6:11).

The light of God’s truth has shone in my heart and given me knowledge of salvation through Christ (2 Corinthians 4:6).

As I hear God’s Word, I do what it says and I am blessed in my actions (James 1:22, 25).

I am a joint-heir with Christ (Romans 8:17). I am more than a conqueror through Him who loves me (Romans 8:37).

I overcome the enemy of my soul by the blood of the Lamb and the word of my testimony (Revelation 12:11).

I have everything I need to live a godly life and am equipped to live in His divine nature (2 Peter 1:3-4).

I am an ambassador for Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20). I am part of a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a purchased people (1 Peter 2:9).

I am the righteousness of God—I have right standing with Him—in Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21).

My body is a temple of the Holy Spirit; I belong to Him (1 Corinthians 6:19).

I am the head and not the tail, and I only go up and not down in life as I trust and obey God (Deuteronomy 28:13).

I am the light of the world (Matthew 5:14).

I am chosen by God, forgiven and justified through Christ. I have a compassionate heart, kindness, humility, meekness and patience (Romans 8:33; Colossians 3:12).

I am redeemed—forgiven of all my sins and made clean—through the blood of Christ (Ephesians 1:7).

I have been rescued from the domain and the power of darkness and brought into God’s kingdom (Colossians 1:13).

I am redeemed from the curse of sin, sickness, and poverty (Deuteronomy 28:15-68; Galatians 3:13).

My life is rooted in my faith in Christ and I overflow with thanksgiving for all He has done for me (Colossians 2:7).

I am called to live a holy life by the grace of God and to declare His praise in the world (Psalm 66:8; 2 Timothy 1:9).

I am healed and whole in Jesus (Isaiah 53:5; 1 Peter 2:24).

I am saved by God’s grace, raised up with Christ and seated with Him in heavenly places (Ephesians 2:5-6; Colossians 2:12).

I am greatly loved by God (John 3:16; Ephesians 2:4; Colossians 3:12; 1 Thessalonians 1:4).

I am strengthened with all power according to His glorious might (Colossians 1:11).

I humbly submit myself to God, and the devil flees from me because I resist him in the Name of Jesus (James 4:7).

I press on each day to fulfill God’s plan for my life because I live to please Him (Philippians 3:14).

I am not ruled by fear because the Holy Spirit lives in me and gives me His power, love and self-control (2 Timothy 1:7).

Christ lives in me, and I live by faith in Him and His love for me (Galatians 2:20).  

– excerpt from “Knowing Who I Am in Christ” by Joyce Meyers