Monthly Archives: April 2014

Paradigm for Life

09 Wednesday Apr 2014

Posted by in Sanctification, Testimony

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“Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried, therefore, with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” Romans 6:3-4

My personal paradigm for life is identification with the Lord in His death, burial, and resurrection from the dead. I see each affliction, difficult relationship, and painful circumstance in my life as an opportunity to identify with Christ in the cross. I see every season of my life spent in waiting or in rest as an opportunity to identify with Christ in burial. I see every victory that God gives me as an experience of resurrection. And, when God gives me sustained progress in something or a pattern of victory in my life, I see that as walking in newness of life. My mental process for dealing with life centers on the cross of Christ. To me the Christian is by definition a parable of Christ, and her life, an analogy of the glory of God expressed in the power of the cross.

This all started about 10 years ago when the Lord began to a healing work in my soul. After, living in denial for my entire adult life that the abuse in my past had any affect on me, I sensed the Lord prompting me to take a closer look at what had happened in the abuse of my younger years. But, having grown up in a home where I was bottle fed Sigmund Freud and spoon fed Carl Jung; I was not very happy about the prospect of counseling. However, I was extremely zealous for God and very much desired to do what I thought He was prompting me to do. SO, after much prayer (and a lot more prompting from the Holy Spirit), I looked for a good Christian counselor and got busy trying to figure out what was the matter with me. I wanted to understand why it was that I felt depressed; why I was having such difficulty being vulnerable and meek; and why I was having an increasingly difficult time connecting with people (relationally and emotionally). I mostly wanted to understand why I did not have the abundant life which Christ promised that His followers would have.

After about three years of counseling with a professional Christian counselor, I had learned a lot about myself and my past, but I came to the conclusion that therapy had brought me as far as it was going to bring me. I understood what had happened, I understood that it was wrong, and I began to understand that the abuse had permanently impacted me. I guess, I just realized that my past was not going away; it was seriously messed up; and I wasn’t doing that great either. At the same time, I was trying to reconcile these conclusions with the truth of the Gospel –  that in Christ I was a new creation. Paul wrote, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (See 2 Corinthians 5:17). The problem was I did not feel like my  past had passed, or that the new me was very new at all. As I prayed about these seemingly contradictory realities, I realized that I needed to put the past on the cross with Christ, and by faith appropriate His resurrection life to overcome the soul-deadening effects that the abuse had on me. I started to identify the “deaths” in my soul, with the death of Christ on His cross. For example, He was betrayed with a kiss; I was betrayed with a kiss. He felt forsaken; I felt forsaken. He felt the filth of the sins of other people upon His soul; I had felt the filth of the sins of one other person on my soul, etc., etc . Through this process, I began to fellowship with Christ on the cross.

For me, this was the beginning of experiencing the power of resurrection for walking in newness of life. When God began to resurrect what was dead in me – through this type of intentional and conscious fellowship with Christ in the cross – I began to experience in real-time the powerful reality of the doctrine of my union with Christ. I guess; it was then that I began to live in the Biblical truth that “…all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death… …We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:3-4). It was at this time in my life that all of Paul’s seemingly enigmatic statements about having been crucified with Christ, and having fellowship with Him in His sufferings, and filling up those afflictions that were lacking in His body, started to make sense to me. Identification with Christ on His cross was no longer an abstract, theological statement to me, it had become… Well, I guess that it was then that it became my paradigm for life.

Buried with Christ- Accepting the Realities of Sin and Death

08 Tuesday Apr 2014

Posted by in Boasting in Weaknesses, Sanctification, Walking in Newness of Life

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“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined He also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.” Romans 8:28

Not every Christian that has ever experienced some form of “soul-death” as the result of someone else’s sin needs to embrace the cross for the sake of emotional healing. Some people are instantaneously and miraculously delivered from the death-effects that result from the sins of abuse, neglect, and mistreatment. God delivers some of His people instantly from the death-effects of past sins, and He delivers some of His people progressively from the death-effects of past sins. Either way, God delivers all of His children from the power of sin and death. If you are not presently suffering any negative, painful results from some issue in your past- Praise the Lord! No need to go digging up things that God graciously buried in the tomb of Christ nearly 2,000 years ago.

However, if our relationships with God are being negatively affected by some issues in our pasts, then we need to deal with those issues. We do this by honestly acknowledging the sins that we have committed, the sins that were committed against us, and the different dimensions of death in our souls that resulted from those sins. In this way, we begin to appropriate what Christ did for us in His cross-death. In like manner, we also need to accept the painful realities associated with those sins and the different dimensions of death that occurred in our souls as a result of them. It is in this way that we begin to appropriate what Christ did for us in His burial. Both acknowledgment and acceptance of the realities of sin and death are necessary parts of experiencing the healing power of God in resurrection. If we want to be raised to walk in newness of life in Christ, we need to come to grips with both the reality and the finality of sin and death.

The question, then, is how does one do that? How does one come to grips with or make peace terms with the sins of devastating betrayals, destructive abuses, or humiliating violations? Or, in other words, how does one “move on”? How does a person “let go and let God”? How does a person accept the actions and consequences of the past, when those actions and consequences are very bad? Well, Biblically speaking, there is only one way to do any of these things, and that way is by trusting God.

We can accept the past and its deadly consequences by entrusting the past to God. We can come to grips with the death-effects of the sins that were committed against us, by trusting that God sovereignly ordained those sins and their death-effects into our lives- for His own purposes. We can “move-on” by believing and owning the powerful reality that God is sovereign over all of our death. We can “let go and let God” by owning the truth that God is now and always has been in control of our lives.

The Bible is clear that God is sovereign over all of life and all of death (Ezekiel 12:28; Matthew 7:25-33, 10:29; Acts 4:24; Revelation 6:10). To say that God is sovereign, is to say that God has unrestricted power, absolute domination, that He has no limitations and that there are no restraints upon Him. As Christians, we know that God is sovereign. Even so, if we are going to accept the negative consequences that emotionally traumatizing sins can have in our lives, we are going to need to rest in the sovereignty of God (not just have a mental awareness or an abstract understanding of what it means that God is sovereign).

We will need to make a conscious, willful decision to entrust ourselves to God- by trusting that the deaths that resulted from the sins that were committed against us were ordained into our lives for our good and God’s glory. We will need to trust that God was in control of all the events of our lives (even the bad ones) and that He ordered them to the end that, through them, we would be more gloriously conformed into the image and likeness of His Son, Jesus. In other words, we have to trust that God can and will use all the wrong doing which we have experienced to sanctify us and make us more like the Lord than we would be, had we never suffered any of the effects of sin or death.

Trusting that God orchestrated or ordained all the events of our lives- even the bad ones- for our good is not as hard to do as one might think. For, to varying degrees, God may have already used the sins that were committed against us and their ensuing death-effects for our good and His glory. This is the case if God has used any of the sins or death-effects in our lives to cause us to recognize our need for Christ. That is probably the greatest good that any sin can bring about in any life. There are many other good blessings which result from the bad events in our lives. There is the ‘good’ of having great confidence in prayer. This ‘good’ results from having a great need for prayer; such as the need to pray that one would experience the power of the cross in resurrection for the reversal of the death-effects of sin. There is also the ‘good’ of having a clear understanding of God’s word. This ‘good’ results from needing to spend much time in God’s word; such a need results from the desire to hear God speak healing, comforting, and corrective truths. There is also the ‘good’ of having the ability to minister the love of Christ to other people who find themselves in similar circumstances to the ones from which we have come. Even the unique vulnerabilities and weaknesses that we have (as the result of the sins committed against us) are forms of ‘divine good’ that God has already worked out for us. For, weaknesses and vulnerabilities force us to rely on God’s grace. Weaknesses and vulnerabilities also force us to depend on God; to provide all that we need for walking in newness of life in Christ. By these few examples, we can see how God has already begun to cause the sin and death of the past to work out for our ‘good’. The Lord will only continue to do this good producing and God glorifying work in and through us -more and more- until we are finally and completely transformed by Him in glory.

We can willfully identify with Christ in His cross-death by acknowledging the realities of sin and death. In like manner, we can willfully identify with Christ in His burial by accepting the realities of sin and death.We can do this by resting in the sovereignty of God. Ultimately, we can accept the past- no matter what it was like- because we can trust God. We can trust God because we know that He is sovereign over all sin and death. Furthermore, we can trust God because we can see that He has already used the sin and death of our pasts to work out varying amounts of good in our lives. We can trust God because He sent Christ to identify with us in our sin, shame, and brokenness. We can trust God because we know that He loves us. Finally, we can accept our pasts and trust God because “…we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined He also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.”

By His Wounds We Are Healed

04 Friday Apr 2014

Posted by in Boasting in Weaknesses, Edification, Encouragement, Sanctification, Walking in Newness of Life

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But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. Isaiah 53:5-6

James 1:15b says, “…sin when it is fully grown brings forth death” (James 1:15b). Rape, abandonment, abortion, neglect, all forms of abuse, betrayal, and other similar actions are sin. They, therefore, lead to death. First, they lead to the everlasting spiritual death of the perpetrators who commit these sins (that is, if they are not atoned for by the shed blood of Christ on the cross). And, secondly, to varying levels, these sinful actions lead to the psychological (mental and emotional) deaths of those people who are victims of them. For this reason, I use the phrases “death-effects”; “facets of death”; “ different dimensions of death” and other terms when I speak of (or write of) the negative psychological ramifications of emotionally traumatizing sins. I am using death-terms to describe the different manifestations of psychological damage that results from soul traumatizing sins, because the Bible teaches that death is the result of sin. “Death-talk” is better than “psycho-babble” for describing the results of these sins, because death-talk more effectively communicates the real problem with these sins: they lead to death in the human soul; not just dysfunction in the human heart and head.

When we talk about the emotional ramifications of such soul-traumatizing sins in terms of death; we are much closer to understanding the problems which result from them, from a Biblical perspective. A seriously, emotionally-injured Christian is in need of experiencing the resurrection power of new life in Christ; not the worldly remedies of self-help books, yoga, endless therapy sessions, and recovery groups. Emotionally traumatizing violations are sins against the human soul which result in “soul-death”; they are not amoral actions for which there are no spiritual remedies. What the emotionally broken Christian needs for healing is the redeeming power of God’s healing grace; not self-reformation and inner-child-reconciliation.

Rape, abandonment, neglect, all forms of abuse, betrayal, and other similar actions are acts of violence in which the perpetrator destroys certain aspects of the victim’s soul irrecoverably. These actions are violations of a person at the most intimate levels of their humanity; they are assaults on the dignity that all humans intrinsically possess as those who are “created in the image of God.” The results of these violations naturally end in some form of psychological death. For example, these sins bring about the death of childhood innocence, the death of a general feeling of well-being or safety, and the death of an awareness of personal worth as one who was created in the image of God. Furthermore, there are less obvious “soul-deaths” which result from the aforementioned, emotionally traumatizing sins. There are issues of insecurity, chronic depression, rage, dysfunction, and other equally life-damaging consequences which result from these sins.

Beyond these obvious death-effects, victims of soul traumatizing sins often develop habitual sin-patterns that result in compounding their own emotional brokenness and increasing the deadening effects of the root sins. They are more likely than someone who has not suffered such a severe injury of the soul to fall into the strongholds of bitterness, unforgiveness, addictions, lying, rage, and other soul-destroying sin-patterns. Of course, in saying this, the trauma endured is not excuse an for one’s personal pet-sins. As the Lord has said, “The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself” (Ezekiel 18:20). None the less, understanding the location of a sin’s root can make weeding one’s soul an easier task to perform.

Even so, all of our sin issues are dealt with at the cross of Jesus Christ. We are forgiven for our own sin, and we receive healing for the brokenness in our souls which result from the sins of others through our identification with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection. True forgiveness and real healing come through identification with Christ on His cross. God does not reform our old person: He crucifies her, He buries her, and then He resurrects her in the likeness of Christ, so that she can walk in newness of life. That is what Romans 6:3-4 is saying, “…all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death… …We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”

As a result of the Lord’s triumphal victory over death, the power of our sin-patterns and the power of the sins that were committed against us have been defeated. Through our union with Christ on the cross the manifold and shame-filled consequences of having been abused, abandoned, neglected, divorced, and betrayed have been put to death and buried with Christ in His tomb. Now, through our relationship with God in Christ, we can experience the victorious resurrection life of Christ over all of the different facets of sin-induced death which linger in our souls. For the believer, the death of Christ overcomes all death. For example, by the power of the cross, God gives us victory over our fear-driven unwillingness to be transparent and gentle in our relationships, and He also gives us grace to give up all of our controlling and manipulative behaviors. Praise God that through our union with Christ, God puts an end to our insecurity, our pouting, and our rage-filled communication. These sinful patterns need no longer rule our emotions or ruin our relationships. Christ overcomes them by the power of His cross.

We can appropriate (i.e., lay hold of, and in practice make our own) the awesome reality of Christ’s resurrection by prayerfully acknowledging the sufficiency of Christ’s death to atone for our own particular sins, and to heal the unique manifestations of brokenness and death which characterize our lives. In order to do this, we will need to evaluate, with uncompromised honesty, the circumstances, the situations, and the relationships which both effected our emotional brokenness, and which are currently being affected by our emotional brokenness. Then we can deal with these truths by bringing them to God on the basis of the finished cross-work of Jesus Christ. We can nail these past events to the cross by systematically and intentionally praying through each painful realty that the Holy Spirit makes us aware of in our lives. We can seek God to administer His healing grace to our souls, and be confident that He will do just that; because Jesus Christ shed His blood on the cross so that believers can walk in the joyful freedom of newness of life in Christ.

Therefore, let us be intentional about contemplating the death-effects that sin has brought about in our lives. Let us consciously and prayerfully name the specific sin-induced deaths which we have experienced. No amount of shame-filled remorse will change what sins were committed against us in the past; nor will any amount of shame-filled remorse change what we did in response to the sins that were committed against us. However, we can be honest with ourselves about the sins that we have committed, and about the sins that were committed against us. By honestly acknowledging the different dimensions of death which have resulted from those sins we can begin to appropriate what Christ has already done for us on the cross. We can begin to partake in the power of His resurrection- and walk in newness of life in Christ. It is by identifying with Christ on the cross – by acknowledging our own soul-deaths- that we will receive healing. Biblical healing results from identifying with Christ in His cross work. As Isaiah 53: 5-6 says; “…He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.”

Beth’s Testimony

03 Thursday Apr 2014

Posted by in Testimony, The Believing 21st Centruy American Woman

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“I testify that Jesus Christ is Lord, and to my personal dependence upon and belief in Christ crucified, buried, and raised on the third day as my only hope of salvation; by redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of my trespasses against God (Romans 10:8-13; 1 Corinthians 12:3; Ephesians 1: 6-7; Philippians 2: 9-11).

According to the riches of God’s grace that has been lavished upon me in Jesus Christ, I came to the knowledge of this truth when I received a Gideon’s New Testament at 18 years of age. I read and pondered many truths in this small copy of God’s Word, one of which was Romans 5:8, “…but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Upon reading this statement, through the merciful illuminating conviction of the Holy Spirit, I understood that this meant that since I was a sinner and Christ had died for sinners, Jesus Christ had died particularly for me (Luke 4:47; Romans 3:23, 5:5; Ephesians 1:3-14; Titus 3:4-7; 1 John 1: 5-10; and Revelation 3:15-20).

The result of having come to this conclusion and belief was that I began to live in the obedience of faith as is commanded by God in the Gospel of Christ. For this reason, I give glory to God: for He is good. He is faithful. He is kind. He is full of mercy and grace; since, with divine affection and by divine intention, He has poured out upon me His incomprehensible love and affections, by my union with His Son, Jesus Christ (Psalm 136:26; Acts 2:37-41; Romans 16:25-27; Ephesians 2: 3-10).

I am convinced that God’s love for me in Christ in unfathomable, completely incomprehensible, unchanging, unsearchable, eternal, beyond reason and beyond doubt.

I have no fear of death, no reasonable fear in life, and I testify that I do fully expect and anticipate with great joy the redemption of my body and the final transformation of my soul in glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Therefore, in the words of the apostle Peter,

I spend my days, preparing my mind for action by being sober-minded and setting my hope fully on the grace that will be brought to me at the revelation of Jesus Christ (Romans 5:1-5, 6:1-13; 2 Timothy 1:7; 1 Peter 1:13; Hebrews 2:14-15; 1 John 3:1-3).

I am certain that this hope, in which I have been saved, will be realized fully when Christ will appear a second time – not to deal with my sin but to save me as I eagerly await His return. I now live my life by faith in light of this reality. With joyful anticipation of my ultimate salvation in Christ, I daily endeavor to work out my salvation with fear and trembling. Even as I do this, I understand that God is at work in me both to will and to do for His own good pleasure and that He does this work through my union with Christ; since I no longer live- but Christ lives in me (Romans 6:1-6; 8:23-25; Galatians 2:20; Philippians 2:12-13).

In practical terms, this means that I live my life by conscientiously walking with God. I do this by renewing my mind in the Word of God as I have daily personal devotions with the Lord in His Word; as well as maintaining fellowship with Him through set times of prayer and continuous dialogue with Him as I go about my daily tasks. My personal devotion to Christ includes daily confession and mortification of sin; supplications to Him for continued sanctifying and persevering grace; and the normal praise and thanksgiving that overflows for having received both from Him (Micah 6:8; Acts 20:32; Romans 6:1-19, 8:13; 12:1-2; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 5:18-20; Philippians 4:6-7; Colossians 3:17; 1 Thessalonians 5:17; Hebrews 4:14-16, 5:14; James 1:19-22, 4:1- 10; 1 Peter 5:6-9; 1 John 1:9).

In acknowledged dependence upon the Spirit of Jesus Christ, I endeavor to display the surpassing worth of Jesus Christ and the Gospel of His salvation to my husband, children, and the world around me. I do this by living in joyful submission not only to God and His Word, but also to my husband who is my God-appointed earthly head, and to all other God-ordained leadership in my life. I seek to affirm, receive, and nurture the strength of my husband; as well as assist him in his call to lead our family for the Glory of God. I do this by using my God given strengths, gifts, and abilities to nurture our children in the fear and admonition of the Lord. Also, I intentionally try to foster a love and respect in them for their earthly father, through both my example and by direct verbal instruction given to them. Likewise, I care for and manage our home; a duty that is both a privilege and a delight to my soul.

In the same dependence and with the same means of endowed graces and abilities; I seek to express a holy, sisterly love for the family of God. Specifically, I endeavor to express this love with modesty, edifying and truthful speech, and by “striving to neither give offence- nor take offence.” I also serve the wider body of believers in whatever God-ordained ways are appropriate in each season of my life. Lastly, when I have occasion, being strengthened by the Holy Spirit to do so, I evangelize the lost by proclaiming the glories of God revealed in the excellencies of Christ and man-kind’s desperate need of salvation through Him (Genesis 2:18-24; Deuteronomy 6:4-9; Proverbs 31:12-27; Matthew 10:40-42; Luke 10:39-42; 1 Corinthians 11:1-11; 2 Corinthians 12:9-10; Ephesians 2:10, 4:20-24; 5:15-16, 5:22-24, 32-32; Philippians 2:1-4; Colossians 3:18-21, 23-24; 1 Timothy 2:15, 5:14; Titus 2:4-5; Hebrews 13:13-17; 1 Peter 3:1-6, 5:5).

Although, my relationship with Jesus Christ has brought with it the ridicule and the disfavor of those that I formerly held dear and has cost me every earthly bond and deceptive pretense that I had formerly enjoyed; I am certain of the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus Christ as my Lord. The enabling call of Christ to forsake and abandon the carnal pleasures of this world and embrace a life of daily cross-bearing in pursuit of my Lord is the greatest privilege and grace gift I have ever received. To receive the call of Christ; the call to be found in Him and to be bestowed with His righteousness; to know Him and the power of His resurrection; to share His sufferings; to become like Him in His death, and to have the hope that I might someday attain to the resurrection from the dead; is an astonishing, incomprehensible, immeasurable, earth shattering, life altering, and inexpressible joy producing gift. The call of Christ has both fathered and continues to nurture the deepest desire of my soul. That desire being that as a woman created in the image of God, redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus Christ, baptized into the assembly of the Firstborn by the blessed Holy Spirit, sanctified by the Same in the Word of truth, I magnify the supremacy, beauty, excellence, and holiness of God in all things in my life and my death to the glory God the Father, praise of Christ the Son, in everlasting gratitude to the gracious indwelling Holy Spirit.”

This is my testimony and I am resolved that He who calls me is faithful and He will surely do it. To God be the Glory forever, great things He has done for me (Genesis 1:27, 2:18-22; 1 Samuel 12:24; Job 5:8-9, 23:13-14; Psalm 105:1-4; Matthew 10:32-39, 24:9-14; Mark 8:34-38; Luke 7:36-50; John 15:1-27; Acts 2:38; Romans 13:8; Philippians 3:7-11; 1 Thessalonians 5:24; Revelation 4:11, 14:6-7).

Question: How Can a 21st Century American Woman Take up Her Cross and Follow Jesus?

02 Wednesday Apr 2014

Posted by in The Believing 21st Centruy American Woman

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Answer: Boasting in Weakness

Boasting in Weakness: Appropriating the Cross of Christ for Life is a blog that is dedicated to posting articles and media that can help the 21st century American woman practically take up the cross and follow Jesus in her daily life. In Mark 8: 34-38 we read, “And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.” The Lord was clear: would be followers of Christ must deny themselves, take up their crosses, and follow Jesus in a life of self-denial and cross-bearing.

The question, then, is how does a 21st century American woman take up her cross and follow Jesus? How does a woman that has been bottle fed comfort, ease, and the American Dream embrace a bloody, Roman cross in a life of self-denial, service, and humility? As I have thought about this question, one answer has come to my mind again and again: she embraces her divinely appointed weaknesses, afflictions, hardships, and trials; as her personal God-ordained opportunities to answer Christ’s call to the cross. By embracing the providentially ordained difficulties in her life (instead of running from them) she can answer the Lord’s call to the cross, and thus begin to receive that which is truly life indeed.

Every affliction in the life of the Believer is an opportunity to fellowship with Christ on the cross. Therefore, every affliction in the life of the Believer is an opportunity to fellowship with Christ in His resurrection life. As we die to ourselves and rest in the awesome power of God to grant us new life, we are sure to experience the fullness of joy that Christ died to give His own. Christ calls us to the cross because He loves us. He calls us to forsake the lying pleasures of the American Dream so that we can experience the true pleasures of the Celestial reality- life in Christ forevermore.

Whether we were burdened by the afflictions of loneliness or business; physical weaknesses or emotional weaknesses; friendlessness or fleeting popularity; poverty or wealth; singleness or a difficult marriage; childlessness or wayward children; the content of Boasting in Weakness: Appropriating the Cross of Christ for Life is intended to encourage the Believer to take up her cross and follow Jesus. It is all posted with the hope that the 21st century American woman will be strengthened to embrace her God-given weaknesses, trials, and difficulties, to the end that she will experience the redeeming grace of God in her life.

The call of Christ has both fathered and continues to nurture in me, the deepest desire of my soul; that as a woman created in the image of God, redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus Christ, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and instructed in the Word of God; I would bear fruit to my maximum potential through my union with Christ, to the glory of God the Father, for the praise of the Son, and in everlasting gratitude to the gracious indwelling, Holy Spirit. My hope and prayer is that Boasting in Weakness: Appropriating the Cross of Christ for Life helps you do this as well.