A Dream Realized...Almost (Part 1)

I was 19 years of age when I gave my heart to Jesus and asked Him to be the Lord and Savior of my life. A year later I surrendered my life to what some call a full-time Christian service or vocation. Although my personal career has never been with a church or parachurch ministry, I do consider myself to be in fulltime ministry as I am the wife of a pastor. I admit that I struggled for some time because I thought that the day I made that commitment to serve the Lord, that it meant I must choose some "special" ministry and label it "my calling". I had friends at the time who knew they wanted to marry ministers, but I was not sure of that at all for my life. All I knew was that I had an intense desire to serve God with all my heart and soul - with my entire being! Three years later at the age of 23 I did indeed marry a minister and so I thought, "well this must be it - my calling!" And, although I do consider it a ministry - to him as his helpmate, to our children as their mother, and to our congregation as their pastor's wife and all which that entails, I must also admit I'm still not sure that this is the "calling" to which I heard the Lord inviting me on that sobering night in May so many years ago.

So this is what brings me to this first post on this blog of mine..."Word-ful Wisdom". I believe this is my calling: to encourage, inspire, uplift and enlighten others with the truth of God's very Word, the Bible. I do not believe that I am a Bible teacher, at least not a very good one. I have taught the Bible to children at Vacation Bible School and Sunday School, to teenage girls in Sunday School and Discipleship classes and even to women in similar settings, but I do not consider myself to be a Bible scholar or theology expert by any means. What I do know is that God, through His Word has delivered me from sin and the effects of sin in my life and all I know is that it worked like a balm to my tormented and wounded soul and still does so. If He can do this for me, He can do this for anyone who is willing to let Him. I just want to share with you what He has done for and in me.

Jesus Christ changed my life...turned me around 180 degrees. I have a favorite Bible verse found in the Psalms that I will share with you another time, but there is another verse that I believe is becoming my LIFE verse. It is Luke 9:23-24, "Then He (Jesus) said to the crowd, 'If any of you wants to be my follower, you must put aside your selfish ambition, shoulder your cross DAILY, and follow Me. If you try to keep your life for yourself, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for Me, you will find TRUE LIFE.'" There are days that I want to keep my life for mySELF. I want things to go MY way. But, I have found no greater joy than when I turn back to Him and say, "OK, Lord, as much as I want this or that, I know that You are my Lord and Your way is best; it is WISEST! And, you know what? I have never once regretted giving Him my life, my days, my moment by moments! He has never once left me or forsaken me despite ALL the times I have veered off of His path and tried to do things my own way. And one more thing...no matter how many steps I take away from Him, it only takes one to get back to Him. It is the step of humble repentance - true, sincere sorrow for my sin and true determined commitment to obey Him and to follow His instruction found in His Word.

THIS is TRUE WISDOM: Not just to KNOW what the Bible says, but to DO what the Bible says! Not just to READ the Bible, but to LOOK to and FOLLOW the example of Jesus, Who in fact, the Bible calls "the Word" in the gospel of John (John 1:1, 14). So, I ask you as we begin this journey to find wisdom in the Word, from where and whom do you look for wisdom? Let me leave you with words from the Apostle, Paul in his letter to the Colossians:

"I want you to know how much I have agonized for you and for the church at Laodicea, and for many other friends who have never known me personally. My goal is that they will be encouraged and knit together by strong ties of love. I want them to have full confidence because they have complete understanding of God's secret plan, which is Christ himself. In Him lie hidden all the treasures of WISDOM and KNOWLEDGE. I am telling you this so that no one will be able to deceive you with persuasive arguments...And now, just as you accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord, you must continue to live in obedience to Him. Let your roots grow down into Him and draw up nourishment from Him, so you will grow in faith, strong and vigorous in the truth you were taught...Don't let anyone lead you astray with empty philosophy and high-sounding nonsense that come from HUMAN thinking and from EVIL powers of this world and not from Christ...And when Christ, who is your REAL LIFE, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in ALL His glory!" Colossians 2:1-4, 6-8; 3:4

(Verses quoted in this post are from the New Living Translation)