Ripples Of Grace

I'm not ashamed to admit that I've lost myself. More than once, more than twice. And I've thought that I found myself before as well.. In some pretty strange places, but like the song says, "When I thought I'd lost me, You knew where I'd left me, You reintroduced me to Your love."  This is my truth:                                                                          I find myself in the Bible every time I read it. I was the Woman at The Well... Making the same trip, day after day, to a well that would never satisfy me. -- Until I met JESUS.                               I was the Woman guilty of sin and about to die in my shame. -- Until I met JESUS.      ...

  Why does God allow us to walk through the fire? There have been many times in my life where I have walked through some of the hardest and painful trials - and honestly I became rude and harsh because of the impact those trials had over me. My family and friends began to avoid me. I cried out to God "Where is all this anger coming from?" He then asked a question that changed my life. "Can you see the impurities in gold before it is put in the fire?" I answered, "No." "But that doesn't mean they were not always there. This anger was invisible to you but very visible to me," He said. "In my mercy and love for you, I've brought you into the fire so that these things could appear to you. Now what you do with this will determine your future. You can continue blaming people - and it will disappear for a time. But we're going to have to go through this process all over again - or you can own it, repent of it, and I will take it out of ...

OK so, I don't know if anyone knows or remembers the game mercy from when you were growing up (I've also heard it called uncle but I've always just called it mercy.) So anyway I've had this game cross my mind quite a few times over the past few days and I couldn't for the life of me figure out why this game kept crossing my mind nor could I understand what it meant but finally it hit me.... For anyone who doesn't know this game, it's where two opponents lock hands and the entire point is to apply so much force, so much pressure, to get the other persons hand bent so out of shape until their in so much pain that they surrender - and they have to say the word mercy and the stronger opponent has to let go… So, let's talk about this for a minute...      If you find yourself in a situation today or any day - where you are in opposition to a force that is greater than you are, against pressure that is greater than you are and you're in so much pain and i...