Mother’s Day (May 11, 2012)
This Mother’s Day is very different for me…as I am 8 months pregnant with my first child. I have been celebrated on past Mother’s Days…as I have spiritual children. I actually got two cards last Sunday from my RevKids wishing me a Happy Mother’s Day! That just makes my heart overflow with joy! This Mother’s Day I celebrate that I have a daughter…I have not met her face-to-face, but I love her and am overwhelmed that God choose me to be her mommy! I carry more responsibility with her as it is my job to raise her in the ways of the Lord (Direct your children onto the right path, and when they are older, they will not leave it. Proverbs 22:6) and she has to live with me. Spiritual children are great because you get to love on them and send them home!
I always thought I wanted children, but as I grew in Christ I wanted it to be HIS will for my life. So I prayed and journeyed through what He truly wants for me. I had to open myself up to every possibility. Would I birth a child? Would I adopt a child? Would I just have spiritual children? I had to pray through each of these and surrender them to God. And I did. It wasn’t easy, but through this I grew closer to Him. I truly had peace and closure on what God wanted for me and Adam.
I can soon embrace a new line in my favorite passage. Her children arise and call her blessed; Proverbs 31:28a. I encourage you to read all of Proverbs 31.
As I think about becoming a mom, I am reminded of ALL the amazing women in my life that are my moms to me. Yes I have my birth mom, who is wonderful and
I love her dearly, but I have been so blessed to have so many other women be my spiritual mothers. They have taught me so much and have helped to mold me into who I am today.
So to every WOMAN who has loved on a child or mentored another life…Happy Mother’s Day!
Contributor | Jenna Ellis (Children’s Minister)
Story of Redemption (April 27, 2012)
I have come to realize that God loves to redeem things. Here is what I mean.
To redeem means to buy back or recover something. From the beginning of time, the Bible tells us God had it in His mind to redeem His people through the sacrifice of His Son. So we should not be surprised that God loves to do this but when we see it so visually it is something to behold. This week, I was in Orlando teaching at the Exponential Conference with our partner Launch Network. Any time I am in an environment where there are a lot of church leaders they always want to know how Revolution is doing. My answer is always the same, “Better than it should be.”
The story of Revolution is one of God’s redemption.
God bought back Revolution from sin and is blessing her beyond words. I have always believed that God would do this but I realized something else this week: it brings God pleasure and glory to redeem. In God’s Sovereignty, He allowed our church to experience pain so that He could have the pleasure of resurrecting it and giving us new life. You see, God is being more glorified now through this story than He could have been before.
Revolution, it is hard to fully express to you how our story is changing lives all around the country. People from all over that I have never met before are constantly coming up to me and saying they have been praying for us. And when I tell them the story of redemption they are simply speechless. This week I was so humbled and overjoyed that God has allowed me a small part in this story.
My ultimate desire in life is to bring God glory and it finally clicked in me this week. What brings Him the most glory is when He redeems a sinner like me and then allows me to participate in His bigger story of redemption. This weekend God is allowing me to once again be a part of this story in a unique way and to be honest it is almost too much to take in. Well, who am I kidding it is too much to take in and that is way I am overflowing with gratefulness.
Our story is God’s story of redemption. To God be the Glory.
God is SO Good (April 6, 2012)
Our Women’s Bible study started in March and I was so excited….I had really been looking forward to it! I was just going to attend, grow in God’s Word and maybe meet some new women. Well, God had other plans….As the registration for this study kept blowing up…Final count 185 women…I was asked to lead a table. I was blown away with the number of women that signed up, so I agreed to lead a table of women. Then I had a second thought: Am I overcommitting to things…biting off more than I can chew? I just went through a lot of life changes and was going through a period of adjustment. But then I remembered…it’s not about me…I need to do this. God will equip me and He has provided the women desiring to Grow in His word.
As the women started to arrive the first night of our study, I was nervous and excited as to WHO God would place at my table. I had been praying for these girls for weeks. So here they all came….6 girls….5 of them I had never met…one from my table at the last study! WOW! Thank you God for this! Every girl at table #15 is so unique and so special. It has been a joy diving into God’s word alongside each of them. They are all so eager to grow in Christ!
2 weeks ago, one of the girls, Brooke (who drives from Vinings to attend Sunday services and Tuesday studies) shared with us that she wanted to be baptized! That sparked great conversation as we all stayed late that night and talked about following Christ. Liz shared that her son, Nolan, had been talking about getting baptized too! The First Wednesday service on April 4th was held in the future home of Revolution Church. Brooke and Nolan were baptized….along with the Schroter family, and Hailey. 3 kids and 1 girl from my Bible study group! To be able to witness that and be a part of what God is doing is just beyond words for me! So grateful, so humbled, so blessed!
Jesus—the Divine Christ! He experienced a life-giving birth and a death- killing death. Not only birth from the womb, but baptismal birth of his ministry and sacrificial death. And all the while the Spirit is confirming the truth, the reality of God’s presence at Jesus’ baptism and crucifixion, bringing those occasions alive for us. A triple testimony: the Spirit, the Baptism, the Crucifixion. And the three in perfect agreement. 1 John 5:6-8.
Contributor | Jenna Ellis (Children’s Minister)