Lysa Terkeurst
If you are checking my blog today, thanks. I feel like I haven't done a very good job of posting in the last couple of weeks.
Yesterday I was so blessed by an invitation to a Mother's Day luncheon that was hosted by Christian Homes of Abilene. My good friend Judy, (who almost got a blog once, but it ended up being a virus), invited a group of buddies to join her at her table for the luncheon. Judy's husband works at a foundation in town that seems to have a table at alot of events like this in town. So thank you Judy for the invite.
When I was invited to this luncheon the name of the speaker was slightly familiar, but I couldn't place her for sure. She has been on Oprah, Good Morning America, Focus on the Family, and she is the president of the Proverbs 31 Ministries, and an acclaimed author of 9 books.
Lysa is a perfect example of sharing the struggles of your life. We think that if we tell the truth about our past or where we are currently that we will be shunned and our friends might turn away. That we will be crumpled up on the floor if we face the depravity of our flesh, but the opposite is true. God can (and will) take the darkness that is filled with shame and shine His light on it and use it for His glory. Lysa has a story to tell of her redemption, and because she listened to God and shared her testimony, He brought good and healing to her broken life and heart.
I told her yesterday as she was signing the book I purchased, Who Holds the Key to Your Heart?, that I appreciated her more than she could know.
Her talk yesterday was about the adoption of her two teenage boys from an orphanage in Africa. A story of inspiration and encouragement. When you hear someone talk or read their story who has been so changed by God, and who has divine encounters with Him, and here is the big part, who chooses to listen and follow God's will in those encounters, it is living proof that a loving God exists and is continues to transform and work miracles in the hearts who choose to listen. Some people say that they don't believe in God, where is the proof. There is proof in the miracles of hearts that have the peace and joy only God can give. It only takes one person in your life who has been lifted from the pit of sin and transformed by the Almighty God to see that God is love.
I spoke to a college age girl last week. And she told me how she had sinned before she came to be at a Christian college, and she is too afraid to be truthful about the redemption in her life. The sinful struggles that she has dealt with. She didn't want to be looked down upon by her classmates. As she studied to learn more about God's word, so she could witness to others as to the good news of Jesus, I told her that it would be her openness about her own struggles that would witness to most people who don't know God. Non-believers don't want to hear us spouting scripture at them and telling them to change their lives or they are going to hell. It seems to me that when I had walked away from the Lord that people like that just made me want to be even more rebellious, it certainly didn't convict my heart of my sin and make me want to change to be like them. It was the gentleness of God and His conviction in my heart along with the people who were honest about themselves and their struggles that convicted me to call out to God and allow that healing and transformation to begin.
That is why I fell in love with Lysa's story from the first moment I heard her voice. It is a voice that is filled with mercy because she has been shown so much, a voice that is filled with grace, because she has been given so much, and a voice that when remembering the pain of her choices, cracked a bit because she can still remember the pain of a life living in the darkness. She is a living miracle.
Yesterday I was so blessed by an invitation to a Mother's Day luncheon that was hosted by Christian Homes of Abilene. My good friend Judy, (who almost got a blog once, but it ended up being a virus), invited a group of buddies to join her at her table for the luncheon. Judy's husband works at a foundation in town that seems to have a table at alot of events like this in town. So thank you Judy for the invite.
When I was invited to this luncheon the name of the speaker was slightly familiar, but I couldn't place her for sure. She has been on Oprah, Good Morning America, Focus on the Family, and she is the president of the Proverbs 31 Ministries, and an acclaimed author of 9 books.
Lysa is a perfect example of sharing the struggles of your life. We think that if we tell the truth about our past or where we are currently that we will be shunned and our friends might turn away. That we will be crumpled up on the floor if we face the depravity of our flesh, but the opposite is true. God can (and will) take the darkness that is filled with shame and shine His light on it and use it for His glory. Lysa has a story to tell of her redemption, and because she listened to God and shared her testimony, He brought good and healing to her broken life and heart.
I told her yesterday as she was signing the book I purchased, Who Holds the Key to Your Heart?, that I appreciated her more than she could know.
Her talk yesterday was about the adoption of her two teenage boys from an orphanage in Africa. A story of inspiration and encouragement. When you hear someone talk or read their story who has been so changed by God, and who has divine encounters with Him, and here is the big part, who chooses to listen and follow God's will in those encounters, it is living proof that a loving God exists and is continues to transform and work miracles in the hearts who choose to listen. Some people say that they don't believe in God, where is the proof. There is proof in the miracles of hearts that have the peace and joy only God can give. It only takes one person in your life who has been lifted from the pit of sin and transformed by the Almighty God to see that God is love.
I spoke to a college age girl last week. And she told me how she had sinned before she came to be at a Christian college, and she is too afraid to be truthful about the redemption in her life. The sinful struggles that she has dealt with. She didn't want to be looked down upon by her classmates. As she studied to learn more about God's word, so she could witness to others as to the good news of Jesus, I told her that it would be her openness about her own struggles that would witness to most people who don't know God. Non-believers don't want to hear us spouting scripture at them and telling them to change their lives or they are going to hell. It seems to me that when I had walked away from the Lord that people like that just made me want to be even more rebellious, it certainly didn't convict my heart of my sin and make me want to change to be like them. It was the gentleness of God and His conviction in my heart along with the people who were honest about themselves and their struggles that convicted me to call out to God and allow that healing and transformation to begin.
That is why I fell in love with Lysa's story from the first moment I heard her voice. It is a voice that is filled with mercy because she has been shown so much, a voice that is filled with grace, because she has been given so much, and a voice that when remembering the pain of her choices, cracked a bit because she can still remember the pain of a life living in the darkness. She is a living miracle.
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