Happy Valentine's Day

Oh, Happy & Most Romantic of Days, the day which inspires the sharing, even the writing, of poems, songs, and all manner of loveliness... I am no less swayed by you today than ever I've been in more connected times - in fact, I may be even more so today. How can this be the best Valentine's Day yet? How could I have spent every one I've been aware of so far reaching, longing, settling for something when all along THIS was waiting, so patiently, for my attention & delight? For today we have yet another chapter in the book that is being written in my life - the book I've so long feared - of this place I'd have always called "empty" - but which turns more full than anything I've ever known.

Mark 2:22

No one, least of all the God of Heaven, pours this new wine into old wineskins. If He did, the wine would burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins would be ruined. The wine of this Valentine's day - the wine of a right relationship to my God & to myself, the wine of passion for the things I was made to be passionate about, the wine of focus and accomplishment, and even the wine of grace when focus & accomplishment are lacking - this wine would have positively burst through the skins of Valentine's Days past. Both this delicious wine, and the old wineskin which would try to hold it would have been ruined.

No, He pours new wine into new wineskins. Even when it means that the old wine is poured out - emptied out to the last painful drop - and the old wineskin burnt on the altar of His will. Even as He caused me to be poured out, even when it burned a purging fire, even when it was everything I ever feared, even then - especially then - He drew closer to me than I ever knew possible, and a work which should have begun the day I entered into His grace - a work which my stubborn heart and stiff neck precluded for so long - this work began to happen:

Ezekiel 11:17-20

'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I will gather you from the nations and bring you back from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you back the land of Israel again. They will return to it and remove all its vile images and detestable idols. I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God."

A new heart - undivided. Not the old dry cracked one which was full of the old wine - the old wine of vile images & detestable idols, of dysfunction and fear of abandonment & an addictive personality. No - new wine. The wine of this day, pouring slowly into a heart that is being healed & reshaped by His own hand.

Jeremiah 18:4 - For the pot He was shaping from the clay was marred in His hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to Him

Malachi 3:3-4 - He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the LORD will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness, and the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the LORD, as in days gone by, as in former years.

Ephesians 5:18 - Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.

Phillippians 1:6 - being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

Jude vv 24-25 - To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy - to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.

Amen. And Happy Valentine's Day.

With Love,

JennySue

Israel

On a morning commute like any other, summertime construction on the Illinois Toll road prompted me through radio presets – scanning traffic reports – looking for someone to make sense of the struggle. As I listened, a connection began to form in my mind. When I arrived at work, I sent an email to the radio station. The traffic reporter filling in that morning was the wife of someone I knew in high school. He had grown up to serve the Lord with Chosen People Ministries – a ministry dedicated to the Jewish population, and to the proclamation among them of Jesus Christ as their Messiah (Romans 1:16). The email I’d sent facilitated a connection to someone with whom I hadn’t spoken in 15 years. We sent the relevant updates (“here’s my last decade & a half in a nutshell”) and in the end, I was added to his address book & his family’s prayer letter.

The week before Thanksgiving, one of a thousand emails I received was from my long lost friend, detailing his yearly “eXperience Israel” trip. Every year, he takes a team of young people on a two week trip to the homeland of God’s people, the cradle and would be grave of His Incarnate Son, and the spiritual epicenter of this world. My heart leapt as it does every time Israel is mentioned. I perused the email, which outlined the nature of this trip as both a pilgrimage and a service trip – working with ongoing ministries – full time ministries established among Arabs, Jews and Christians in the one physical location which God, throughout Scripture, proclaims his intentions for eternity.

Of course, a divorced single mother with a full time job does not get far in this world without a heavy dose of pragmatism which quickly affronts itself to any such dream. More often than not, that voice wins out – as well it should – but not this time. This time, if it was the strength of the dream or the strength of the God of hope behind all dreams, every objection my mind could offer found a ready answer. From my internal monologues to my discussions/debates with friends and family – from my pursuit of the application process to my acceptance on the team – even to this point, as I write this letter – every hurdle has been surmounted so far. I am left with no reason to think that the same will not be true for every obstacle which might present itself from now until I set foot in the Holy Land.

I love to share happy stories. It is my hope that you are blessed by this story, and that I might continue to share with you its blessings – for surely, they have only just begun.

As this journey continues, I ask for your prayers:
· As I prepare for the trip, financially, emotionally, and spiritually
· For my children, while I am away from July 7 – July 22
· For my safety, and the safety of the entire eXperience Israel team
Finally, it is my hope that God will lead some who receive this letter to partner financially with me in this opportunity. Below you will find a form and instructions to facilitate that specific involvement. Please carefully consider whether that is something you are compelled to do (II Corinthians
9:7), and please be in prayer for others as they do the same.

Further information can be obtained by leaving a comment here, or at the following website: www.chosenpeople.com

Grace

Below is what I had the opportunity to share at church a few weeks ago, as I introduced the grace extending element of the new recovery program we are kicking off on Saturday nights.

See www.celebraterecovery.com or www.fvcc.com for more information.

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Hello, my name is Jennifer. I’m a believer in Jesus Christ, and I am recovering from issues of codependency & relationship addictions.

That statement will tell you something about me. There’s a lot about me that you won’t know simply from that statement. That’s true for all of us. I was asked tonight to share with you the “grace-extending” nature of this program. I am excited about grace, and the work that grace has made possible in my life. The fact that I am in recovery is a testimony to God’s grace in my life.

Those of us who are recovering from alcoholism, codependency, a divorce, chemical addiction, an eating disorder, the loss of a loved one, sexual addiction, or the effects of verbal, sexual, or physical abuse – we will all share some characteristics. Those of us in recovery who are first & foremost believers in Jesus Christ will share even more in common. The statement – that label that we put on our recovery - serves us by keeping us focused, and by keeping us out of denial, but it doesn't capture and reflect the grace that God has shown us in such individual ways.

Celebrate Recovery can provide a setting in which that can happen. God’s grace can be shown among us the way a cut jewel captures & refracts light. As we share our stories, God’s grace can be exponentially compounded in our lives, in our relationships, in our church, and in our community. We all have stories. There are no perfect people allowed here, from Sunday morning to Saturday night, and every time in between. We all have a story which tells of our need for grace. This program can minister to such a wide variety of hurts, habits, and hang-ups – and no one is without some of those.

As you get to know me, it will be easy to spot the parts of my history which caused me so much pain, and the ways in which that pain caused me to first mistrust and later run angrily away from my God who had allowed it. What I hope you will also see, what I hope you see more than anything else, is something it took me a long time to see – something, though, which now comes into sharper focus every day – GRACE. It’s a word I’ve used a few times already, and it’s a word you’ll find all OVER God’s Word.

Psalm 103:8-12
The LORD is merciful & gracious; He is slow to get angry & full of unfailing love. He will not constantly accuse us, nor remain angry forever. He has not punished us for all our sins, nor does He deal with us as we deserve. For His unfailing love toward those who fear Him is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth. He has removed our rebellious acts as far away as the east is from the west.

The Psalmist tells us that it is God’s nature to be gracious.

John 1:14
The WORD became flesh & lived for awhile among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One & Only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace & truth.

John explains to us right from the start of his gospel HOW God can show His grace to us, through His Son, Jesus Christ.

Romans 6:14
Sin is no longer your master, for you are no longer subject to the law, which enslaves you to sin. Instead, you are free by God’s grace.

Paul tells us specifically that grace is available to us in our recovery

Ephesians 1:4-8
For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy & blameless in His sight. In love He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ – in accordance with His pleasure & will – to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the One He loves. In Him, we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that He lavished on us with all wisdom & understanding.

You see, God was never disengaged from the hurts I suffered, from the habits I formed, or from the hang-ups which entangled me. All the while, He was bringing me to the place which He – as the One who created me & as the One who knew me better than I knew myself – to the place which He knew I needed to be. It was the only place from which I would truly come to depend on this grace – a place from which I could honestly and deeply connect with God – a place from which I could honestly and deeply connect with others. These were the things I was searching for in the first place. He knew that, and not one hurt has been wasted in bringing me to this place. This is the work of grace in my life. This is an example of what we can share in, as we gather together.

There is safety in the structure of this program. There is effectiveness in the principles of this program. Celebrate Recovery has served in hundreds of churches as a conduit of God’s grace towards so many who are ready to walk through the valley of their hurts, habits, and hang-ups – their hiccups, their heartaches, and even their horrors.

The Open Share groups – which will take place each week after our large meeting – will provide the opportunity to share in a safe environment. Respect & confidentiality are the hallmarks of these groups, and the grace just comes pouring through. Each week, after Open Share groups, we will have an extended fellowship time, called “Higher Ground”. It is during this time where we can just wallow in the level ground at the foot of the cross, where grace is typified by non judgmental acceptance.

I love the picture of grace in the story of the prodigal son in Luke chapter 15 – particularly the father’s words starting in verse 22:

But the father said to his servants, 'Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' So they began to celebrate.

They began to celebrate. It is the grace of God that makes the recovery possible, and recovery is something to celebrate.
Thank you for letting me share.