31 Days of Hindsight: Day 3

We are on day 3 of this 31 day journey looking backward in an effort to glean, grow and go forward into 2017! If you are new to the journey today, checkout day 1 and 2 for the foundation for this hindsight writing challenge.

I pray you leave encouraged and inspired to start your own year-end review. In looking back,  I hope you are able to sift out your gold, so that you can glean, grow and go into 2017 with more joy, peace, wisdom and grace than ever before!

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31 Days of Hindsight: Day 3

January 2016 culminated in Costa Rica.  I did not return the same.  I experienced the beauty of a culture steeped in love, loyalty and hospitality, not to mention the exquisite fruit and food altogether.  God was alive and active in the church, on the street, in homes and in prisons.  I experienced the Spirit’s tangible presence like never before.

If you were taking the journey alongside me on this blog at the beginning of 2016, you already witnessed some of the Costa Rican miraculous encounters, but if you are new to psalm8110.com , I want to leave you with a mental image of 21 men giving their lives to Christ in San Sebastian prison, compelled by the Spirit after hearing the words of a testimony.

I witnessed a “woman at the well ” moment:

Cardboard testimony: Woman at the Well

Back in 2010, God first showed me the universal language of testimony! Love in every language is vulnerable and transparent.  Every time I witness someone give their testimony, or when I have shared my own Jesus journey, I have seen people stand up and run to Jesus.  Seriously, it is the craziest thing.

Sharing our stories of how God has and is making us new can be terrifying, but the truth is that God gets all the glory.  It is not about us at all.  God simply asks us to be willing, available and authentic and HE draws hearts to HIMSELF, as we just share all we got!

I literally don’t think anyone even understood me in Brazil or Costa Rica, but there is no doubt they heard God because they were crying and flocking to HIM left and right.  It is miraculous to see the power of God do what only HE can do! Just thinking about how  HE chooses to do it through our broken and messy, but laid down, lives gives me HOLY GOOSIES every time.  HE so doesn’t need us but GOD WANTS US ALL!

AMAZED ALL OVER AGAIN!!!

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31 Days of Hindsight: Day 3

Hindsight really is continuing to teach my socks off, or rather remind me of truths that are timeless and lessons that are always worth remembering and applying in the present!

I am thankful to have been a scribe in theses moments, so that I can read the words afresh and hopefully breathe fresh air into the conclusion of your 2016 and the genesis of your 2017!

Where has God taken you this year in order to show off HIS extravagant grace, love and mercy?  (Sometimes it is literally in our own backyard, office cubicle, or a hospital bed! Nothing and no where can separate us from the love of God! )

Psalm 139:1-12 MSG

” God, investigate my life;
get all the facts firsthand.
I’m an open book to you;
even from a distance, you know what I’m thinking.
You know when I leave and when I get back;
I’m never out of your sight.
You know everything I’m going to say
before I start the first sentence.
I look behind me and you’re there,
then up ahead and you’re there, too—
your reassuring presence, coming and going.
This is too much, too wonderful—
I can’t take it all in!

Is there anyplace I can go to avoid your Spirit?
to be out of your sight?
If I climb to the sky, you’re there!
If I go underground, you’re there!
If I flew on morning’s wings
to the far western horizon,
You’d find me in a minute—
you’re already there waiting!
Then I said to myself, “Oh, he even sees me in the dark!
At night I’m immersed in the light!”
It’s a fact: darkness isn’t dark to you;
night and day, darkness and light, they’re all the same to you.”

Have you ever, or when was the last time you shared your testimony, your story, thus far, of how GOD has and is making you new?

***The power of our testimonies is not in our words but in the ONE who paid our price, saved and set us free! HE extends HIS open invitation to a lost, lonely and hurting world through HIS blood and our telling about HIS gracious redemptive work in our lives!

“…through the blood of the Lamb
and the bold word of their witness.” Revelation 12:11 MSG

As you close out 2016, I pray you are given an opportunity to share what Christ has done and is doing in your life and you take it, boldly spotlighting your foundation, filter and focus-THAT JESUS!

But

if you have not experienced Christ yet, I pray HE washes over you right now and that you recognize your need for a Savior, turn and see the wide-open arms of the ONE who has been waiting for you all your life, the ONE who loved you first!

HE is ready and willing to make you new and keep making you new and I promise you won’t be able to stay quiet about it.

Like the Woman at the Well, you will rush about your world telling everyone you know about the ONE who saw you, knew you, loved you and made you NEW!!! God translates our love stories into any and all languages, as we obediently go to next door neighbors or the the nations!

Who knows where we will go with God and share our love story in 2017!

Oh the places we will go-Costa Rica, Africa, Brazil, work, school, the gas station, Wal-mart… the ends of the earth!