Reflection on my Baptism Anniversary of 20 years "It is for Freedom that Christ has Set Us Free"

 

I'm back on the blog after a five-year hiatus....for something amazing to reflect on.  This 20th Baptiversary, my anniversary of being baptized when I was 30yrs old.   

One of my college buddies recorded it and put it on DVD.  What a blessing to watch it last night as a family.  Some parts made me laugh, and some parts brought some tears.

Over the years there were many times I've felt the need to edit my story of coming to Christ, of stepping out to follow Jesus.  You see, my awakening was tied to something in our culture not many talk freely about.  We can talk about the death of a loved one, we can talk about divorce or other very personal things, but when was the last time you felt comfortable hearing someone talk about their abortion story? Yet I am one of the "1-in-4" women who did have an abortion.  There's no pretty way to dress that up.  Yet the beauty of it is how my story is now one of Redemption by the One who set me free.

Me with Book Manager Lori 

It was on a Sunday back in 1994 when I was selling books door-to-door in Massachusetts that I was invited to hear a theologian sharing the beauty and the agony of the cross.  On this day, I saw all my doubts about Jesus being "the Way" being shaken up, and then removed, as I saw the truth so clearly....but I was left with a huge roadblock.  My sin of abortion was right there before me, my guilt, my shame and feeling that the gates of Heaven were closed to me! I was in agony.  

That day, when my dear spiritual mother Lynette shared, I saw I was stuck in the "Old Covenant" of the Commandments --"Thou Shalt Not Kill" and she helped me to see clearly the New Covenant of Jesus, the Lamb of God, in shedding HIS blood, all would be forgiven if I reached out to Him which I did in a personal confession inviting Him in.  That day my faith went from one where I knew about and tried to follow a religion to one of relationship, of Lordship,  Jesus as the Center, where the old me was forever changed.

Then in 2000 I settled back in Madison and heard a Christian radio station sharing about the Whole Heart healing ministry for abortion.  There I met my dear friends Cassie and Mary who led the Forgiven and Set Free bible study.  I found this little excerpt from my Dec. 2000 journal today and it made me smile:

"I am learning the Bible so much Lord. I am doing studies w/Cassie that has me knowing where Samuel is (near Kings for example) and that Romans is before Corinthians and Galatians is after that.  That 1John is before Revelation. I am bringing HIS WORD into my life. Lord it is making me so strong in you!!" 

John 3:1-5 sums up this call to a new level of belief as Jesus talks to the Pharisee Nicodemus about being born again.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+3%3A1-5&version=ESV

Feeling the tremendous weight of my "roadblock" being removed by the cleansing of His forgiveness and later finding a small church on State Street in Madison that became my "Sunrise Family" where I began to grow and love God's word is where the call came to my heart to be baptized -- to solidify this "New Tracey" and be freed up to shine my light, His light, so that I could free up others to find Him and do the same. Some day it'll be great to share the Next Chapter, with some postpartum breakdowns that signaled the need for revisiting my abortion wound, and to again find great healing and restoration in the process.

It  is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

Galatians 5:1

♥♥Bless your heart for reading my story, and may it encourage and move you in your own journey of faith, for God is so good!!♥♥

Sharing My Heart, on Being Born Again (Part 2)

Picture Credit:  Pinterest

My post on Facebook yesterday may have been quite out of the blue, yet my "near-death scare" experience truly opened not just my eyes, but my mouth in a whole new way. What I posted yesterday I'm calling a sort of  "Facebook Manifesto" as I posted it there first and want to share it on my blog as well.

Now, for the final part of the Manifesto I would like to share.

Picture Credit:  mychurchtoolkit.com

In the mornings lately, I've been taking these lovely walks near the quarry behind my house. In my pretty urban area, it's a wonderful respite filled with butterflies, River Birch growing wild, and all kinds of prairie flowers and grasses and foot prints of the critters who freely run back and forth in this wild area. As I walked there today, I was struck when I turned on my AM radio to a podcast just starting titled "Do I Really Need to Be Born Again".

Picture Credit:  Epignosis Ministries

I think that word has been hijacked by society to mean something it was never meant to. In fact, the "author" of that phrase was Jesus himself (see John Chapter 3) when He was talking to Nicodemus (one of the Pharisees) and since many Pharisees opposed Jesus, Nicodemus had to come to him in the cover of night. As I read this, I see it was Nicodemus' statement "We all know that God sent you to teach us (etc.) ...." that led to Jesus to say "unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God." (from NIV)

I like how someone put it "Your Choice is Your Eternity"

For those that would like to listen, here's a link to the message:http://www.oneplace.com/…/do-i-really-need-to-be-born-again…

Just wanted to share a part 2 of yesterday's post that helps explain what I mean when I referred to being born again. In 2000, when I was baptized as an adult, that for me was my outward expression of the inward change that was happening in me as I was being born again.

I know this message in the link is a bit long, so I love this paraphrase about being born again from the Telling the Truth podcast post:

"....in actual fact, the emphasis is not on what you do, the emphasis is on what the Father does. He begets you! To be born again, then, is primarily an action of someone outside yourself, and it is someone who is above. You are begotten from above. So the idea of being born again is basically this: There needs to be an action from God above reaching down into my life that will dramatically change me inside."

That really explains what I feel happened in my heart way back then, and what I continue to walk out today through "fear and trembling" since NONE of us are perfected on this side of Eternity.

May the Lord bless whomever is led to read this :)

Thank you for visiting!

💜 💜 Tracey 💜 💜

When Your Life Changes in An Instant (Part 1)

Picture Credit from Amazon

Grab your coffee or tea, it's time I'd like to share something with ya'll.

I know I haven't written on this blog in a while, but there have been some things stirring in my heart that I really wanted to share. I hope you are blessed, encouraged, and impacted through what I post.

Wow, this video! Powerful, powerful, powerful .... In my heart I thought I would trade his words "When I Became A Man" with "When I Became Born Again" .... When I Became A Man (Or as I dub it "When We Become Born Again"

Even as a woman this video resonates so much with my heart; that he (Clayton Jennings) shares this call for us to walk away from the old way of living; to walk away from how "most of the world" lives, and make a decision to Live All Out for Christ. That decision could be the first time we are really stepping out, or if we're already following, that could be a call to dive deeper into relationship with the One who loves us with an everlasting love, the only One who can truly shape us into who He has designed and created us to be. The One who sent his only son to die on a cross, so that, as we receive him as Lord and shed our past, we let him knit us together in the forgiveness of our sins, and we can truly walk out the plan He has for us as a New Creation, one day, one step, one breath at a time.

In the past few weeks something happened while I was away from home, on vacation, that turned my world upside down; a near-drowning-panic experience, and although my sister and brother-in-law "rescued" me, and got me quickly to the sandbar and away from the riptide currents, my life was changed in that instant. I'm standing firmly now in WHOSE I am. I had been baptized as an adult in the year 2000 after I had begun reading my Bible book by book for the first time and was seeing a heart change I never felt before. 

Photo Credit From Amazon.com

I love the acronym BIBLE "Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth", and from 1995 to now, I've been in my own way walking out the journey of faith. Yet after that day in the water when I saw in an instant my life could slip so quickly from me, things have not been the same. I took all my gadgets and technology; my facebook - my laptop- my kindle - my nook, ALL OF IT I've surrendered to the Lordship of Christ. Funny language to use maybe, but instead of using Facebook and technology as a form of "a public diary" as I had been, I am going to use this technology the way the Lord leads me. I don't quite know what that will look like, some might still stay the same like posting some family pictures, but I am taking baby steps as I figure that part out.

LIFE IS SO SHORT. We only go around once. I want my life to be USED UP in Christ, for His plans, for His purposes, like my life verse/wedding theme from Jeremiah 29 (11-14a) 11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity.

To those following me here and on My Facebook Page (click HERE)  ... Feel free to stay with me ... feel free to unfriend/unfollow me .... yet I'll be taking the next several months for a season of personal reflection, journaling, deep soul searching, time in fellowship and the Word, time in worship and praise, and out of that will be periodically using technology in chronicling this walk, this part of the journey My Lord is leading me on. I know for sure one thing won't change; I'm still Tracey. I'll still fall, I'll still screw up, I'll still have times I lose my temper, yet I'll no longer be satisfied just staying there and saying "that's okay". Because I want to be changed from the INSIDE OUT. I'm so thankful He calls me His Beloved. That I'm a Daughter of the King. And I'm so thankful that I have the courage today to share this here in my little corner of the Facebook/ social media world.

Love, hugs, and much blessings go out to each one who reads this, as we each walk out our own journey in this world, and may we find The Peace that passes All Understanding to guard our hearts and minds in Him.

Thank you for visiting!!

💜 💜 Tracey 💜 💜