This is Not the End
October 23rd, 2011 marked midway of our time here in India. It was a Sunday, and we had just ended our time of midway debrief with our team and our field support from AIM, where we spent the weekend away from ministry and really normal life in India as we stayed at a beautiful resort tucked away in a beach haven. We spent a lot of that weekend joking, laughing, and reflecting on the first half of our trip. After that time ended, we had felt refreshed to continue on our ministry for the other half of our trip and really finish strong. We set goals and different things we would work on or people we would reach out to, in order to ensure that we don’t waste any more time that we have left here. We were refreshed to love these people with everything for the last month and a half because we knew the end would come quickly.
And a month and a half later, here I am. And my time in India has come to an end. Bags are packed, most of our goodbyes have been said, and we head off for the states starting…today?? It’s a bit surreal. Actually a lot surreal, but October 23rd has really gotten me excited for what is next in my life. Because, not only had we spent that time reflecting on the last month and a half and setting goals for the next month and a half, but our wonderful team leader, Beks, planned an activity for us to write a letter to ourselves a month and a half from then. We didn’t have time to prepare. We didn’t discuss any of it. We were just supposed to spend time praying and really asking the Lord to speak into our lives a month and half from then and just write. And tonight, as we sat in a boat swaying in the vast ocean, watching the sunset over the horizon for the last time in India, we read our letters to ourselves and silently took it in. We got inspired and couldn’t believe the things we were telling ourselves. I had a faint recollection of what I wrote then, yet it seemed like the words that I was reading were not even my own. But I know it was God speaking through me to me. And like I said, what the Lord said to me through me has got me so pumped for what is next. My time in India is ending, but this surely isn’t the end. The Lord has so much more for me in store, and am I ever ready to take on the next grand adventure He has for me!
(10.23.11)
Dear Beloved,
The resounding truth in your life, in your being is that
YOU ARE FREE!
Your past chains, your past struggles have no weight, no bearing on who you are today or who you will be tomorrow.
But the Lord has released you.
The Lord has set YOU free!
So hold out to that truth when struggles and temptations come. When the enemy tries to tie you down again with lies (and he will try mightily), be ready to step out and CONQUER those lusts to defeat them and leave them dead on the ground as they should be. For you are truly a fearless warrior for the Lord who is ready to stand tall in Battle and to stand in victory over your foes. But you must be willing to step out in faith. In His strength. And step into His grace that He pours on you day in and day out. The grace that He pours into your life that you can have victory and say. No, scream. No, yell. A resounding grownd, “NO!” to lusts and temptations that will come. For nothing, nothing that the lies of the enemy can offer will stand equally with what the Lord has for you. As His child. As His pure and blameless bride without any blemish. As His beloved. The way the Lord has made you is how the Lord sees you. You are truly holy, and worthy and pure. As white as a fresh snow. But your faith and power are as fierce as a storm and the Lord will use this for His gory. If you thought you were being vulnerable and open these last few months, be prepared for what the Lord will call you out to do next. Because the truth is that the Lord wants to use your struggles, your hardships, your failures for His glory, but you must use your voice and just expose your heart for it to reach into other’s lives. Be ready to step out as a warrior for setting others free from their bondages. From releasing prisoners from their prisons because if you are continually guarding yourself with His strength, He will use you as a mighty warrior for others. As you have fought hard for your freedom, fight even harder for the freedom of others. For you know what it is to be in bondage. You know what it is to be weighed down with guilt and shame and so much bondage. Never desire to go back to that place and use that desire to feel for others who are trapped just as you were. Use your vulnerabilities to speak life into them and depend heavily on the Word of God to BREATHE LIFE into them. And that grace, that wonderful grace that the Lord has bestowed upon you, use that grace to bestow upon others. The people the Lord will bring to you will definitely need it.
And especially don’t chicken out of breaking all the bondages of bitterness and hostility in your family. These broken homes that you walk into everyday are a reminder of the broken home that you have that is CRYING OUT FOR RESTORATION. Your mom cries out for it. You sister screams for it. Your siblings. Your nephew. Your step-dad. Your father. There are so many things that have been left unsaid and unsettled far too long, YOU MUST STEP OUT AS A WARRIOR IN YOUR HOME! For if you don’t allow the Lord to use YOU who has given you much freedom, and grace, and knowledge, and wisdom to restore your family, who will step out and do it before it’s too late? BE BOLD. BE COURAGEOUS. Step out as a leader in your home and be a missionary to your family. Show them Christ through you and BRING RESTORATION!
For the Lord has
restored you
freed you
redeemed you
chosen you
reclaimed you
renewed you
lavished his grace and love upon you
strengthened you
And He will continue to day in and day out. But cling to Him. Fall on your knees before Him and cry out for that strength, and courage, and warrior-like boldness and know you will not only have victory in your life but in the lives of strangers, the lives of friends, the lives of your family. Gird yourself with His strength, mighty warrior, for He is calling you out to battle to set these captives FREE!!!
Love,
Me who is already and ready to be YOU
Thank you so much for all your support and prayers. This adventure will stay close in my heart, and even more so will these people I have grown to love. I hope that the stories will stay with you, as these experiences will stay strong with us. Please continue to pray for those we ministered to in India and for the whole of India. The Lord has great plans for India as well. We’ve already seen a glimpse of it play out.
{Psalm 107}
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;
his love endures forever
Let the redeemed of the LORD tell their story-
those he redeemed from the hand of the foe,
those he gathered from the lands,
from east and west, from north and south…
Some sat in darkness, in utter darkness,
prisoners suffering in iron chains,
because they rebelled against God’s commands
and despised the plans of the Most High.
So he subjected them to bitter labor;
they stumbled, and there was no one to help.
Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble,
and he saved them from their distress.
He brought them out of darkness, the utter darkness,
and broke away their chains.
Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love
and his wonderful deeds for mankind,
for he breaks down gates of bronze
and cuts through bars of iron.
He will break through their chains.
Their gates of bronze.
He will break through the darkness
and bring them to His Light.
He will set them free.
And lift the needy from affliction.
For He is the Lord.
Full of steadfast love and mercy and justice.
He is the Lord.
Not only ponder, but praise the loving deeds of the Lord.
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