RESTORE, REPLACE, RENEW

Have you thanked Him?

Have you praised Him?

Have you made it your priority to agree and cooperate with Him today?

Have you taken that deep breath and listened for what He has for you today?

1 Timothy 2:1 (The Message)

The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know.

 

“God will RESTORE, He will REPLACE and He will RENEW”, Joyce Ladd author of GOD STILL.

 

Yesterday was ENCOUNTER at the REFUGE.  It is a wonderful gathering of all of the men, leaders and some guests at our Lancaster Campus.  There is fellowship, worship, updates and sharing.  It is a great opportunity to cast vision and inspire renewal and change.

 

And I asked my friend Joyce to share with the REFUGE men yesterday.  

Why? 

Joyce has led a very challenging and difficult life.  She was on the streets ofColumbus for 20+ years prostituting, stealing, scamming and surviving.  She has seen friends murdered and she herself has been violated, hurt and damaged.  And yet coming from her lips as she shared with our men were those three promises from GOD!

 

Joyce will tell you she has been incarcerated over 250 times, multiple felonies, and multiple charges and yet GOD has cleared the way for her to now have a wonderful job helping others.

RESTORED!

 

She will tell you that on the streets as a prostitute she was desperately seeking LOVE.  Her definition of that was so skewed and sick that all of the encounters and all of the compromises were a broken plan to find acceptance and real affection.  Now unequivocally she has REPLACED her chase for love with her LOVE for the FATHER!

And lastly without question GOD has RENEWED her.  Who could have imagined that this woman who for so many years was a taker, a thief, a manipulator; the most unlikely of candidates, could courageously stand in front of 70+ men and be the voice of the GODLY Proverbs 31 woman?

That makes no sense BUT for GOD!  

RENEWAL!

 

The “take away” today is a basic/simple one.

 

GOD is always ready to RESTORE, REPLACE and RENEW.  That is what He does.  All He asks is that you BELIEVE He will!

 

He (JESUS) included everyone in his death so that everyone could also be INCLUDED in his life, a resurrection…

(a RESTORED, REPLACED and RENEWED life – emphasis mine)

…life, a far better life than people ever lived on their own.

 

Because of this decision we don’t evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don’t look at him that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it! All this comes from the God…

2 Corinthians 5:15-18 (MSG)

 

Are you feeling broken, damaged, run-down, or rejected?  Maybe you feel that you have gone too far, made too many mistakes, created too many barriers between you and GOD.

 

Remember!

GOD doesn’t EVALUATE you based on you.  When you accept His Son Jesus Christ, He sees the FRESH START and the NEW you in Him!  That old life as damaged or as broken as it may have been is GONE the Bible says; a NEW life is burgeoning!

 

So embrace that promise today, the promise of in Christ and through Christ I can be RESTORED that I can REPLACE my old life with a NEW one in HIM and that will ignite the RENEWAL I desperately seek!

“The more we let God take us over, the more truly ourselves we become ...― C.S. Lewis

 

 

I love you all…

Opportunities for Hope (Champions Charge)