A New Thing

There is something unexplainable and wholly miraculous about having a relationship with Jesus Christ. Me and Jesus have a pretty intimate relationship. Sounds silly to say out loud, but, it's the truth. Before I surrendered my heart to Jesus, I saw the world in muted greys and blues. I can still remember the day I finally "Got it!". The day I knew that I knew that I knew...He is God.

As much as it pains me to have experienced so much of my past without Him, my forgiven sinful "before" has made way for an "after" that shouts "Glory and Hallelujah!"

This past month, there is a verse in Isaiah the Lord has been using to speak to the very core of my being:

Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past.

See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the desert
and streams in the wasteland. Isaiah 43:18-19

His word tells me not to hang on to the past; old insecurities, old weaknesses, old hurts. It tells me He is doing something new.

God LOVES to do new things with the same old problems, old addictions, old hurtful relationships, old pains, old scars. Especially when it changes the same old you and the same old me. When we surrender those hurts and heartaches into His loving hands, only then can He do what He does best...make all things new.

He makes all things new. Revelation 21:5

New life, new freedoms, new relationships, and new regenerated people are His specialty. He desires to change us from the inside out so we can make a difference in this world.

Oh friends, there are quite a lot of "new things" He is doing in my life. What about you?

What "new thing" is He doing with you?

All things have become new.

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." 2 Cor.5:17

Celia and I met in 1994. I remember the day she walked into dispatch and started work with me. I was working the police channel and was very, very pregnant with my son David. She walked in wearing a long skirt and peasant blouse. I thought she was so pretty. The gals in our radio room weren't very nice to her. Actually, they weren't very nice to anybody. I befriended Celia and we became close friends, best friends.

To set up the story accurately, in 1994 Celia was not walking wholly with the Lord back then, and neither was I. I found Celia's obnoxiously bossy ways, loud mouth and even bigger heart a joy to be around. During many heartaches in my life, she was the one that drug me to church, she was the one that gave me a Bible that I actually read, she was the one who was slowly being made into the godly woman that I so often seek counsel from.

If you had told me fourteen years ago that she would be speaking at a Christian women's conference at Mt. Hermon, before 350 women. I would have laughed.

But friends, this is the God we serve.

It reminds me of the saying, "If you want to make God laugh, tell Him the plans you have for your life." When you surrender your life to Him, you can't dream dreams big enough for what he has planned for you.

God takes our old lives, our mistakes and misteps and makes them ALL new again. Her life is a walking testimony of how the Lord loves to pick up His children, dust them off, and send them upon the straight path towards the blessings He has stored up for each one of us.

Please pray for my dear friend Celia, she is speaking this evening. I know the women are going to be blessed by her message to them. Celia is transparent, so very funny and the type of Christian woman that you desire to hangout with, all the time! I know these women will just love her like I do.

And for any of you out there who may read this post. Those of you who may feel like you are a walking failure, or a hyprocrite or just too old to change or too dirty to be made clean, God wants to dust you off too. He is waiting for the chance to make your life whole again. He has so much in store for you.

God took the bossyness of my friend and turned that trait into leadership. He took her loud mouth and turned that into a gift of speaking. He took her even bigger heart and turned it towards hurting women.

Rest in the words above, in Christ, He makes all things new.

This means you too.