Whatever is Pure, Inspiring Christian Poetry, Devotionals and Testimonies July 2011

The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn,and provide for those who grieve in Zion— to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor.—Isaiah 61:1-3

At the age of 14 years old, I was placed in the child welfare system. My first foster parents were Christian and insisted that I attend church with them. A the time, I was not appreciative of their beliefs but decades later I am still grateful for their godly influence.

A few months after my arrival, I was invited to spend the day out on an acreage with some of the youth from my foster parent's church. As soon as we arrived, we sat down for a meal with our new friends. Unfortunately, our hostess interupted our meal with the grim news that the car we travelled in had caught fire in their front driveway.

By the time the fire department reached the acreage, there was little left of the front end of the car. Once the car was cool enough, we all gathered around the car to see the damage up close. The things we had brought with us had been laying on the floor under the dash board. My traveling bag was severely damaged as well as my coat and shoes. I was dumfounded and could only stare when I pulled out my bible from the bottom of my bag. It suffered only slight smoke damage.

God took that moment to speak to me for the first time. I saw what was left of the front half of car and it was not possible for anything to survive such a fiery assault. God turned that moment into a life learning lesson. He is more beautiful and grand than I could imagine, a lesson I would learn more and more over time.

I grew up in a dark and abusive world and married into a Christian family. My husband turned out to be a very abusive man. For the safety of my children, I had to make the choice to end the marriage and I have been a single mom for ten years.

God made us all precious in his sight He gave us the ability to love, but also gave the ability to know right from wrong and to take responsibility for our own actions. God asked me that day as I held that unscathed bible to never blame him for the actions others chose to do against me. I felt the Lord was telling me that while others deliberately made choices that would hurt me, he would never be the cause of their choices.

God asked me that day to ask him for the grace and understanding to grow and become more beautiful in his eyes when others did wrong towards me. He encouraged me to not follow in their ways and not allow their hatred and anger to infect my own heart. He promised if I would pray for God's intervention in the lives of those who hurt me, he would work in their lives. He asked me to let him carry me through my darkest times and asked if I would allow him to help me.

There is a story I heard, about a king who had a scratched diamond, making the useless and no one in the kingdom could fix the diamond to give it value again. A man from outside the kingdom came and asked the king to give him a chance to fix the diamond. Using the scratch as the stem of a rose he turned the damaged diamond into a beautiful rose, gave the diamond value again. The Master can make us into beautiful roses in his hand, if we turn over our wounds, hurts and scars to him. We can then bear the beauty of God's wonder to the people around us.

I have become a beautiful person, through God's work in my life. The hurt and abuse held me back in many ways but God brought some wonderful people into my life to help me see that He is the God who can make beauty from ashes. All the bad has been turned to good.

©2011 Charlene D
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“Summertime, and the livin’ is easy, Fish are jumpin’ and the cotton is high” DuBose Heyward

“The safest road to hell is the gradual one – the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.” C S Lewis

As a child, I endured the winter and lived in hope for the summer. Swimming lessons, late night games of tag, days spent under a shade tree as I devoured book after book, the heady scent of flowers, the soothing sound of busy insects in the distance and the tinkle of the ice-cream peddler’s bell as he cycled though the neighbourhood – all joined together to create a hazy, lazy blur of days that melted into weeks that flowed into months.

Upon my return to school, I would be hard-pressed to answer that age-old essay question,”What did you do with your summer?” Not only did I have little to report, I found it hard to keep my mind at the task at hand. I had fallen out of practice in being diligent. It was only after I began to volunteer for local service groups for a couple of weeks each summer that I had anything of interest to report. Once I began to work for most of the summer, I found my summers to be more fulfilling. My time off was treasured but I felt I had accomplished something and I found the return back to school discipline not to be as great a shock.

As believers, when we are in a season of summer in our lives, when all is right in our world and there is no apparent battle looming, it is easy to allow our days to unfold before us. And yet during such times of ease, we are the most vulnerable to the enemy’s subtle temptation and distraction. We easily slip into compromise and procrastination. We find ourselves drifting off into spiritual slumber. This gladdens our enemy’s heart for he knows that if we were to be suddenly called into action, we would find our spiritual reflexes slowed from lack of exercise, we would find our discernment cloudy and we would find the weapons of our warfare rusty from disuse.

Let us remain attentive and awake. Let us not turn away from our daily disciplines during times of ease so we do not fall out of practice of hearing his voice. Let us keep the weapons of our warfare sharp, rust-free and ready for battle.

Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers and sisters, you do not need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. When they say, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them, as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and there will be no escape!…So then let us not fall asleep as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober.

In my early twenties, I thought life was just one big party. At that time I believed as long as I didn't hurt anyone I was ok. Well, I was wrong and I did hurt others but not on purpose. Yes, I was young and alone, and I just wanted someone - anyone - to just love me as me. I was so empty and I would try to fill that deep emptiness with whatever and whoever came my way.

Looking back a few years earlier in life when I was sixteen, I was trying to (as most 16 yr. olds do) "Fit In." One night I was handed a joint. "Why not?" I asked myself, "Everybody else is and they seem ok." So, I went for it and I liked it! As time went on I needed more, and my "friends" had it all. I tried anything and everything they would give me. I only drew the line at injecting anything by needle. I was wasted all the time with no one to blame but myself.

I had been used and abused by men so many times, that I just gave up. I had a bottle of prescription pills and I just could not take any more, life was not worth living...as I was tilting the bottle towards my mouth, my sister-in-law was walking down the hallway towards me screaming "NO!!!" My response was" too late" and down the pills went. Immediately she called 911. When the ambulance got to the house I was drinking a beer, I told them, "I will not come with you until I finish this beer." Hence the title of this testimony.

When I woke up the following morning I was wearing a straight jacket and was locked in a padded room. I was ANGRY...why didn't I die ? I stayed in the hospital for about a week. The doctors were very kind to me and yes, they prescribed more drugs but these were "legal." So I was sent back out into the world on medications, needing these drugs just to function.

A few months later my brother and his family started going to church, they too did the "drug thing",but had stopped. I was not interested in their church going at all. My brother and his family asked me to "give it a try." What the heck, I've always tried things before when asked, what could I lose? So when Sunday morning came, I went with the family.

Seated next to my brother, his family, I really did not pay attention to what was going on in the service until I heard the pastor saying, " You and your Budweiser "I was startled "How did he know I was drinking beer and that it was Budweiser ?" His next sentence hit my heart, " You need to turn away from the drugs and lifestyle that you are now living." I looked around to see if anyone else seemed as ashamed as I did. No one did. How could this man know what I was doing? No one in my brother's family knew the life I was living. As the pastor continued I held on to every word. The last sentence of his sermon was the most amazing. "If you are tired, empty and have no hope and are longing to be loved. There is only One who can forgive you, help you, strengthen you, give you True Hope and Who LOVES YOU more than anyone can ever know...His Name is JESUS CHRIST."

That day I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Savior and Lord...I was changed that very moment. My desire's, my thoughts, my lifestyle were gone! The emptiness was gone!!! Now, don't get me wrong, there were times and still are times in my life when I have made mistakes & I am still learning for without HIM, I can do nothing.

We are all looking for something and/or someone. It's in our nature. We try to fill that empty place in our hearts with all kinds of "things". But, the Truth is... All we have to realize is, GOD is the One who put it there and GOD is the Only One who can fill it.

In 1985 I moved to Florida to live with my parents. I was literally starting over at the age of 27 and had nothing to my name beyond a couple suitcases of clothes. Shortly after my arrival, I did find a job and bought a car . But, I could not seem to find a church where I knew The Lord wanted me to be. My walk with Him was started to get weak, I needed fellowship with others who knew Jesus personally.

I started to ask where others went to church at my job, most of them laughed at me or just looked at me strange. Not long after that I was asked if I wanted to go celebrate the new contract the company just received. I figured this could be the time to show others that I was for real and didn't need the drinking, etc. in my life.

It was a bad mistake and for the next ten years I fell back into the life of self and sin. But, I do know that God never left me. He was always with me,calling my name, I just didn't answer Him. I decided to turn my back on Him, even though I knew it was wrong and that empty void starting to come back in my heart again.

I was so unhappy but, no one knew my sadness. I was drinking and getting high to fit in with those around me. Although I was backslidden, I was attending a church where they encouraged me to get help.Once again, I was again sent to a psychiatrist and once again I was placed on medications on top of the other drugs. I was right back where I was before I started my walk with Jesus.

I no longer could work because I was in too much pain and I literally couldn't use my thumbs. I had a computer at home, and even in my painkiller fuddled state, I figured out how to go into chat rooms so I would witness to others about Jesus Christ!

In May 2000, I was in a chat room when an Instant Message popped-up. This man wanted to talk privately about the Lord. Now, some of you might question, "Can you really lead a person to Jesus in a chat-room?" I answer you with a YES!!! I have and still do..

"Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh: is there any thing too hard for Me?" JEREMIAH 32:27

We became very good friends. We were both very hungry to know and walk closer with God. We prayed for each other and helped each other learn scripture.

One evening, Matthew didn't come online and so I decided to I call him. Our conversation was interrupted at times by his brother in law. Curious, I asked if there was a problem. Matthew explained that his brother-in-law and step-sister were truck drivers and in need of someone to watch their daughter, home and dogs while they were on the road." Without any thought I offered to help, I knew I was to move there. And I did, the very next day!

After I was there a month, Matthew saw how much pain I was in. I was still on the medications for pain and for the anxiety attacks I was having. He sat me down and said," I can not bear to see you in so much pain any more." He anointed my forehead with oil and prayed, "Lord, You can heal her. In Jesus' Name. Amen." A simple prayer from a humble man, GOD heard him, that very instant I WAS HEALED!!! I have had No Pain since!!!He then prayed "Lord, You healed Karen from all the pain she had, I know You can take this anxiety and depression from her also. In Jesus' Name. Amen."

I went through a week of very strange feelings, but the Lord took great care of me.

A few months later,we started getting teased about when we were going to get married...We would explain to others that we were just friends-in-The-Lord. But, people continued to ask us how long we were dating. We decided to take this to The Lord in prayer. We had not considered this step in our relationship.

On October 11, 2000 we were made 'two in one' in Him as we became man and wife. Since then we have been through many trials and tribulations but, if we didn't go through these times we would miss what God wants to teach usand show us that He is God.

We are now ministering to others by sharing His Love.
Please, if you learn anything from this short story of my life, know and learn this, God loves you. He desires a personal relationship with you. Listen for His still small voice, call on Him through prayer. I promise you and better yet , God promises you, he will hear and answer you.

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