This morning I was so blessed to listen to an interview of Christian author/international speaker Mary DeMuth with pastor Wes Hamilton at Lakepoint church. http://www.marydemuth.com/speaking.php.
Mary grew up in a home where drug abuse flourished, and at five years old she was sexually abused by neighborhood bullies. She lost her father at the age of ten, and as a teenager she considered suicide. But at Young Life youth camp, she heard the gospel and dedicated her life to Jesus Christ, and God now is using her in a powerful way as an author and speaker, wife, and mother. She is living proof of how generational sin and dsyfunction can be stopped by the transforming power and the blood of Jesus.
One of the things Mary said during the interview above with pastor Hamilton which struck me was that God spoke to her heart, "I want you to live broken." We need to be broken in our roles as wives, moms, daughters, sisters, friends, writers, speakers ~ just every area of our lives. Through our weakness and our brokenness, we rely completely on God and learn to trust in Him alone.
The woman with the alabaster jar had this brokenness. When she heard that Jesus was going to be at the Pharisee's house, she came and anointed Jesus' feet with her tears and her hair. She worshipped Him, because of all He had done for her. http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Beth-Jones.
In the interview with Mary, Pastor Hamilton said that as spouses and parents, we often ask ourselves, "Who am I?" Who are we to deserve this blessing? For children are a gift from God. (Psalm 127: 3) Yet sometimes we do not even know what we are doing!
Moses asked this question, too: "Who am I?" Yet God promises that He will be with us, just as His presence was with Moses. Not just in the great, epic-sized events of our lives, such as going to the nations to be a missionary. But His presence will be with us in the living room talking with our kids. Or in the bedroom with our husbands. His presence goes with us, day by day, even in the little, daily, routine things of life.
Many of us, like Mary, don't want to duplicate the homes we grew up in: sexual, physical or verbal abuse; alcoholism; drug abuse; yelling, fighting, continual strife; emotional distance; spiritual apathy or atheism; materialism, and so on. We want our lives to be different now, easier, happier ~ godly, Christian homes where Christ reigns.
We don't want to be our mother. We don't want to be like our father, either, but like our Father in Heaven with His heart of love. It is only by the power of the Holy Spirit living inside of us that we can be healed and changed from the deep wounds of the past, and can demonstrate an active, living, real faith to our children, being examples to them of Christ.
It is only through our crying out to Jesus that we can be set free from the past, our chains broken. It is only the love of God that can penetrate hard, bitter, devastated hearts that can be touched and filled to overflowing with His love, truth, goodness, kindness, forgiveness, and mercy.
God wants us free. He wants us broken before Him, admitting honestly that we cannot do anything ourselves without Him. "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing." (John 15: 4-5)
Through Christ we can make a difference, an eternal mark. We can have a happy, healthy, godly home where there's love, laughter, peace, and safety. As our children see our passion for Christ, they will hunger and thirst for Him, too. Jesus can change our lives, and then impact the generations to come for the Kingdom of God. It starts with us ~ broken before Him.
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