» Christine

It had been seven years since her last relationship. These seven alone years though not willingly desired, she sought to find herself. The self that she had lost those many years ago, in a relationship that she knew would continue to drown her crazy if she decided to make it the journey of her life.

It was months after she had called off her wedding that she finally found the courage to head on out, and see what the dear Lord had in store for her.

She was terrified.

Many times terrified of the unknown, and the abilities of the Lord to see her through into her new life.

Her kids were a constant reminder of what could have been, what she had hoped her life would have become, and also a reminder of the life she so desired for them, and for her.

“A FULL life, filled with love and more love.” Was her heart’s desire.

She was a hopeless romantic, and had hoped for the same kind of love. It was not long into her seven alone years that the Lord made it clear to her, that before she could ever fall madly in love with man, she would need to fall madly in love with Spirit.

“Fall madly in love with Spirit?” How could that be?

Falling in love with Spirit seemed to be a life sentence to an empty, unromantic life.

“Was Spirit ever capable of revealing to her the kind of Love she craved for? That madly in love kind of love?” She often wondered. Would this be another one way kind of love where she gave and never received? She wasn’t willing to live that kind of life again, and yet there was something about Spirit that kept drawing her closer and closer to Him, that before long she found her self completely immersed in Spirit’s world.

She found that Spirit knew oh too well how to give Love. He showered her with more Love than she had ever known, and if ever there was a kind of Love that she would love to model for her children and husband to be, it was this kind of unselfish, unconditional love that she received from Spirit.

It was the first time in her life that she fell short in giving love. Spirit had showered her with so much love, that she could not keep up with Him. On days when she failed to be obedient to His words. Days when she really didn’t give Him as much attention as He gave her, even on those days that man normally tends to ran from, Spirit never ran and never stopped giving Love.

He was hopelessly in Love with her.

He never failed to express His Love to her. He had already given up so much for her. So much so that He would give up His life all over again, if it meant saving her from an empty kind of purposeless life. And slowly into her journey, she too fell in Love with Spirit.

“How could she not?”

He was everything she had hoped for and so much more. All her life she had always been on the giving end of Love, never receiving what she gave and for the first time, Spirit had given her more than she was ever capable of giving Him back, yet He never asked for more, always loved her all the same.

She had found her FIRST LOVE.

He is what TRUE LOVE is meant to be.

Rich in Love, Patient, Kind, Honest and oh so Gracious.

Today, she will tell you that what started off as a quest to fill an empiteness within her that she hoped a husband could fill, turned out to be a quest for something much greater, something much more filling. And if ever there was a perfect ending to a journey of search, this journey to find TRUE LOVE, truly is that perfect kind of ending. For this Love He gives her is beyond any kind of Love that any man can ever give. And she thinks to herself, that had she never opened up her life to the possibility of finding a different kind of Love, she would have missed out on the BEST LOVE of all.

True Love!!

Lately she has felt a beginning of something new in her life. Perhaps now Spirit is willing to release her into the world of man, for Him to then bless her with the husband she so deserves.

Many thoughts ran through her mind.

Spirit has been more open to her finding love in man more now than ever before. “It’s scary to venture into the world.” She often says. To open up her  world, and her heart to the possibility of hurt is something that is new and scary for her.

She has been under His protection for so many years, that venturing out seems almost like a fish outside of water, yet she knows and is comforted by His ever constant presence in her life. His love and protection will always be with her even as she walks through this new chapter of her life fully aware of the presence of her FIRST LOVE, and His marvelous kind of LOVE.

“Oh, what a beautiful LOVE to have,” she says.

There are many things we search for in life that never bring us fullness much like the Spirit does. Husbands, wives, wealth, status are to mention a few. While is there is nothing wrong with these desires, on the contrary God longs to bless us with all these things and so much more, but if we are ever to find TRUE LOVE and enjoy it to its fullest, we must first find the LOVE that Spirit gives before we can ever find love in man or in any other desires. 

Are you searching? Whatever it is you are searching for, stop and search instead for God. Your FIRST LOVE. And when you do find Him, and fall in LOVE with Him, you will find more than  you ever hoped for, and as you continue to journey with LOVE He will bring you your Prince charming and so much more will be added unto you.

Trust that as you invest your time with Him, He too will invest abundantly in your life.

Until next time, have a blessed Spirit filled week.

Love: Christine

Not sure why I love this song so much. Maybe it’s the simple reminder of the Grace in my life. Maybe it’s the realization that Grace is truly a scandal. A scandal not recognized by many, yet the power within it is much like an uncontrollable scandal.

Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

2 Corinthians 12:8-9

Boy, it’s been a crazy past week. The love and the presence of God continues to awe me. I especially love His works in the midst of chaotic filled days. Days when the break of dawn is welcomed with a desire to fall back to sleep. Days when lunch comes by without any recognition. Or, the days when I almost speed through a red light while deep in thought.

In the midst of it all, I admit that I have welcomed unnecessary noise into the center of my days. I must also admit that I have been part of that noise. Sometimes its easy to go through life in the clutter and midst of noise, because in the center of it all for a second or an hour we can almost escape the reality of life.

That’s been my case.

This friend of mine once told me that she loves to escape pain. That statement she made almost escaped my noisy ear, as she scrambled to put her jig saw puzzle together. I wondered for a second how I should respond to her. I knew she was in deep pain, but who was I to tell her it would one day be OK. She needed affirmation, to hear instead that life was unfair. That, I was in deep pain for her, and I wished with all my heart that I could take this pain away from her.

“I should have told her that,” I told myself after uttering instead these words to her, “God does not give us what we can not handle.”

While it is true that the Lord does not give us more than we can handle, it is also true that many a times, the Lord does give us more than we can handle. Maybe it is that He wants all the glory to fall on Him. May be it is that we need to simply go through it. Whatever the case, when it happens it hurts, but it is not to say that the Lord wishes us pain. On the contrary, the bible says that what is meant for evil, the Lord will turn around for our good. I say this because in the midst of a noisy day, I failed to acknowledge a friends pain. Failed to bring peace to a friend. Failed to embrace the reality of life, which is we will experience pain. We will walk through grounds of hot coal, valleys and into mountains, and through it all the Lord will always be by our side, even when it does not feel like it.

After bursting out those words to my friend, I later sat outside my patio one evening. The sky was heavy in darkness, the stars bright as day and as I stared up into the skies, a reflection of noise painted itself before my very eyes. I realized then that noise had clouded my days, and because of noise I wasn’t truly able to hear the voice and promptings of the Lord. Noise was the reason my mind was cluttered and unable to feed peace into the heart of my friend. And it was in that dark clouded moment that I knew I needed to do something. I needed to get rid of all the unnecessary noise that was part of my days, and instead point my heart solely to the Lord.

There are many destruction’s in life. Many a times they don’t come to us with a clear appearance of noise. They are disguised as: unnecessary meetings we don’t really need to have or be a part of, gatherings, parties, activities, social networking and all the many events this world dares to bring our way.

A dare to stop living in noise stomped into my heart.

I dared myself as if I were in some major competition, that I would dare to eliminate any traces of noise in my life. It was easier said than done, because not too long ago I found myself inviting noise back into my life. I wondered to myself if I will ever get it. “What about noise, brings joy to an already chaotic filled life,” I said to myself.

Are we, like my friend, in need of an escape from reality?

I once went through a season of deep deep pain and loss. Noise was my escape from the pain that clouded my days and nights. I remember taking to the streets. Partying like the world was coming to an end. I was ever on the move. There was seldom a place that I had not been to, or tried to go to. Moments of silence just seemed to bring more pain into an already pain filled heart. Many a times, I cried myself to sleep. I hated sleeping. I only loved it when I was completely exhausted to where I would fall into deep sleep, because in normal sleep, the dreams would start all over again. Memories of my dad came rushing in, nights that should have been peace, turned into a motion picture of past memories. And before long, day would break without a taste of what was supposed to be sweet sleep.

I had lunch with my friend not too longer after uttering those not so peace bringing words to her. I acknowledge that I had failed her. That I had in the midst of my noise, failed to recognize that not too far away from where I sat, was a friend in deep deep pain. Pain so deep that darkness had found itself a home to dwell. This time around, I wept with her. We hugged and had a few words to say to the pain that clouded her heart. She smiled. For the first time in weeks, she smiled. Oh, what joy filled my heart when I saw a glimpse of her smile. I wondered then how quick her healing would have been, had I not been clouded in noise.

A dare to stop living in noise is not only my dare. It’s a dare I dare you to take on. Since having lunch with my friend, and seeing that glimpse of hope come through her heart via the smile she dared to share with me, I can’t think of any other way to spend my days, than in the presence of peace that surpasses all understanding, to where noise simply has no home in me.

Noise my friend, will keep us far from God, and in a place we really don’t need to be.

Noise will cause us to miss out on the gentle promptings and utterings of the Lord.

Those precious nuggets of wisdom and revelation that Lord dares to bless us with, only comes when we are fully in His presence.

There are moments, when silence is truly the best gift we can give ourselves.

The golden moments of silence remind me of Zechariah:

Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. ¹² When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. ¹³ But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. ¹⁴ He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, ¹⁵ for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born. ¹⁶ He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. ¹⁷ And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

¹⁸ Zechariah asked the angel, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.”

¹⁹ The angel said to him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news. ²⁰ And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their appointed time.” – Luke1: 5-25

And when Zechariah was released from silence, he had no doubt of the wish and blessings of the Lord. He stood firm in the Lord’s instructions and everyone around him was in surprise.

That’s what noise does to us, it  brings doubt when the Lord speaks.

I dare you my friend, to find it in your days to eliminate all the unnecessary noises that you have clouding your days.

I dare you to spend peaceful, quiet moments with the Lord. Lost in His presence, to where you are in sync and in oneness with Him.

I dare you to face the reality of your day.

To call on Him for strength and peace that surpasses all understanding. And like my friend who was once in deep deep pain and darkness, I dare you to find joy in the moment.

 And in that dare my friend, you will reap the gift of silence.

Until next week, may the Lord bless you and help you make it through your days in the midst of peace that surpasses all understanding.

Love: Christine

Would you consider sponsoring a child through Compassion International? Click here to start your sponsoring journey.

My kids and I have been so blessed by our sponsor child James, and I know you too will reap the blessings of being a blessing.

So over the past week we have been unpacking the book Redeeming Love. A MUST read book, for those avid readers like myself out there. We have dared to unveil the overwhelming power of Grace, the truth about God’s kind of love and revealed to ourselves, how much like Angel in the book Redeeming Love, we are all so desperately in need of our very own Redeeming kind of Love.

The kind the Lord dared to give Angel through her husband Michael Hosea.

So often I have sat on my chocolate like brown sofa overlooking my patio, and found my mind standing still in wonder of Michael. In wonder of the kind of love he dared to give Angel. And in wonder of Angel. This beautiful poor abused orphaned girl who had never known of love, not the kind that Michael dared to give her. I have also found myself questioning. Questioning my abilities to love and be love to others. Seeing as how Michael loved Angel, I have found myself wondering if I have the grace to love someone like Angel. To be there and stand strong amidst such hardship in marriage. At the back of my mind I always felt that I would be there, no doubt about that, but after reading Redeeming Love and reading what Michael faced, I have wondered if I would overcome. Certainly out of my own will, I would fall, but with the Lord, I am sure I would stand strong. Even then, many times the enemy has tried to make me question my abilities to be a wife, my abilities to stand with my husband amidst such hardships. I like many of you, have wondered if unlike Michael I would have walked out that door and never turned back.

The Lord in this book Redeeming Love through Michael Hosea, depicts what Grace is all about. Unmerited favor, one we are all unworthy of yet the Lord dares to give it to us. The mere thought of Michael and Angel, what they had to endure many a times my tears have found themselves a river to flow, as the answers to my questions have found a strong yearning to be more like Jesus.

How do we love seventy times seven times?

“How do we show the love Michael gave Angel to our – husbands, children, family, friends and all others?,” I have asked myself, when they have so wronged us?

Over and over the Lord has continued to reveal to me that this journey of unconditional love is what life is all about. That without striving for such love, then life as we know it is worth nothing. No purpose in life can ever mean anything if never done out of love. It is no wonder the Lord speaks so highly of love, and the power we have when we love seventy times seven times.

The Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?

Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.”

Matthew 18: 21-22

Love has no ending and so does forgiveness.

When my father was brutally murdered I was faced with the decision to love or hate. I will be honest with you, my first choice was hate after all what is there to love in murder? “How can one ever love another who takes the life of a loved one?,” I would say to myself.  Hate was then much easier to give than love. But, oh but the Lord had better plans for me. Plans for good and not for evil. Living a hateful life brought nothing but anger and a depressed sort of living. Nothing good ever comes out of life when lived in anger. If the Lord were to bless you while in anger, that blessing might as well be washed away, as there is no room in your heart left for love when anger and un-forgiveness is in control.

I learned through the Lord, that I had to let go of all my anger and un-forgiveness. I had to free myself to love again and to receive love. See, a heart filled with anger and un-forgiveness has no room for love. This story of my life which started out in pain and in anger, has blossomed to something much more beautiful than I had ever expected. Today, if I was faced with my fathers killers, I would start by letting them know that I have forgiven them, and that there is nothing they can say to me that will take away the forgiveness I have for them. I would find it in my heart to love them like Christ loved us. I know its easier said than done, but I truly believe I have been healed from that angry, un-forgiving heart, and there is nothing they could ever say to me that could take away this freedom I now enjoy within me.

How do you love seventy times seven times?

Forgiveness is the answer to this million dollar question. There is no making it through life in love without forgiveness.

I want to speak to all those who are harboring un-forgiveness in their hearts. To those who find it hard to forgive and find the freedom there is in forgiveness. Pray and seek God’s persistently, He so longs to bring healing to your heart and free you from this life of misery. Remember, forgiving is not a sign of weakness, forgiving is simply placing your life and trust in God’s amazing and capable hands. Its knowing that God is the greatest avenger of all, and if we let go then we can only expect to receive the kind of love that He longs to give us.

I pray this for you, and I do know that once you make up your mind to forgive, you will find God waiting for you in love beyond which you have ever known of.

I love this phrase, “Let go and let God.”

Listen – Chris August 7 times 70

Until next week, may the Lord bless you and guide you into love seventy times seven times.

Love: Christine