Briarwood ChristianSchool, My Children and in the Name of Jesus…what scares me to death! Paranoid! Just be positive! Don’t worry about what people think! Labeled as an abuser and one who need keep silent. Silenced and blocked as a parent by my child and her school. Briarwood Christian School We started out there so naive and yet in the purest form. Kelly Mooney was and is the most kind person on the other end of the phone as we hoped and prayed our child would move up the list and be accepted into this Christian school. I aimed with purpose raising my child to know and take hold of Christ and others laid upon that foundation with things that will burn up. Sometimes I feel stuck like Tom Cruise in the movie “The Firm” yet I know there is an ending in sight to this nightmare of sorts. The last two years have been a literal hades for me. The bible says in Proverbs 22:1 “A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and favor is better than silver or gold.” Almost two years ago in a couple of weeks, my child walked out the door and out of my life. Disowned me. Why? As much as she would not believe, malicious parental alienation. Then, supported by the school she attended and others, her drama became me. Why? Because I have rules. Rules to protect and safeguard my children. Research says that the brain is not fully mature until the age of 25 and “It is well established that the brain undergoes a “rewiring” process that is not complete until approximately 25 years of age. This discovery has enhanced our basic understanding regarding adolescent brain maturation and it has provided support for behaviors experienced in late adolescence and early adulthood.” Parents are in their children’s life to help be a rudder that steers them. I had rules about the phone, rules about random people not showing up to either house in the middle of the night. Things like that. Rewind, I have never met a man in education that acted more immature, yet grandiose, and elementary in his school of thought simultaneously. The former principal at Briarwood High School, the “upper campus” Dr. Shaun Brower. There were so many things that I had to take issue with and he and Mr. Steiner (the former superintendent) did not care for me. I have my conversations with them recorded…every one of them…because I live in Alabama in a one party state and can record as long as I give consent. I consent to record a call that I am on and that is legal. I had conversations with them regarding socialism, critical race theory, witchcraft with their Dungeons & Dragons club. I had qualms with my daughter seeing two men kiss during a movie that was PG-13 and my child was 12, in Coach Kerleys “character development” class. It wasn't enough that she wasn't 13, the fact that she could never unsee what she saw was still not that bad in the eyes of the school. That was another conversation with Principal Sanders. He saw the same movie 13 times and doesn't remember that part he told me. He is no longer at Briarwood either. The dual between the superintendent and the principal was embarrassingly rudimentary and I saw all sides of that. I prayed for discernment when I was younger. I can cut fake with a butter knife. When I was having a very serious conversation one day with the principal, he was chatting with his son and chewing on a chicken wing. I sent them a picture of a girl holding a fixed blade knife at the school, in the common area and nothing, cricuts. Then, a kid who threatened to shoot up the school. I talked with a Coach who was working in the interim between principals and someone on staff at Briarwood. They chided me and told me it was handled. The same kid was at school the next day. I can't speak to what Briarwood does handle, only what I have seen. To tell you these people were not safe people who I would entrust myself or my children to is an understatement. However, my children had to be at Briarwood because of a divorce decree. Yes! I am divorced for biblical reasons and the Lord does have provisions for that in His word. Don't get me started as I will debate that to the ground. I would never ever have chosen everything that has come my way but you/we need to be dang careful before we gossip and sit in judgment upon another based on information that you have not been privy or an insider to. I love my children fiercely. Only someone who has loved deeply, fiercely and has been betrayed, lied about and shunned can understand my plight. Yet look no further than the Psalms to find a fellow sojourner that can relate: ”Indeed, it is not an enemy who insults me, or else I could bear it; it is not one who hates me who arrogantly taunts me, or else I could hide from him. But it is you, a man like me, my close friend in whom I confided. We would share personal thoughts with each other; in God’s temple we would walk together among the crowd.“ Psalms 55:12-14 NET You are not normally deeply hurt or betrayed until you have been betrayed by someone who shouldn't have betrayed you. Someone you were close with…Who was acquainted with your ways. Someone you loved. This is personal. Yet it is up to you to choose what you do with that hurt and pain. Cry, get it all out, feel, but have the Lord guard and fortify your heart. I have been through a loss so grave that it has been a death of sorts. With eternity in our hearts we weren't meant for death. What is harder is the death of a relationship when the people are very much alive. We aren't promised tomorrow and told to live at peace as far as it depends on us. Yet peace is not the absence of conflict. It also does not mean closeness. You can't control another person. Self control is the fruit of the Spirit and that is hard enough. Yet when do you draw the line? When do you tell your story? I have been in court more times then I would like in the last few years. However, I was accused and acquitted of being an abuser at the end of March of 2022 and then cleared of that in April of 2022. However, I have been in litigation and treated like complete garbage in court. Two believers should not be in a human court per the word of God, so that should tell you enough. The response of the school and the aforementioned people was outrageous! I wrote these so called believers because I could not get help from anyone else to try to address the day my child left my house. The sad thing too is when kids have choices. They can choose a parent. So, in the last two years I've had no contact with my child. Even for me to say hello would warrant them trying to restrain me. I have been scoffed at. Lied about. Shut out. I will not be silent though. So as I was bold faced lied about and had all of that recorded, Brower met with my ex-husband and they shut me out like I was a leper in a leper colony. I may as well have shouted unclean! Unclean!No one from the Upper Campus was allowed to communicate with me about my child, which was not decreed anywhere. I was cut off completely for being a parent. No one from the school would even speak to me. The fact is, I am a survivor of abuse. Physical, mental, sexual, and emotional. More than a survivor, I am more than an overcomer in Christ. Since the devil can't steal my salvation, he wants to steal my testimony. He wants me to wear some scarlet letter of abuse or abuser. I won't wear it. I did not abuse my child. I can't even get started on the GAL and what a disadvantage the government is to the believer in a human court and what a wreck my relationship is with my own child in this messed up world we live in. These people have to make money and the beat goes on. Yet Jesus has allowed all of this and my conscience is clear. I have been maliciously alienated from my child by her parent, her school, and the state. She has to have this drama now. Her narrative is now “her testimony” and she was allowed to call me a #itch as I was a byword and dram to tell to a church baptism ceremony. All of this has separated her from me and demolished our relationship, yet defines a little of who she is now. The fact is that I am not a millionaire and won't be easily manipulated or dismissive. She now has a new woman that pretends to be her mother. Sometimes peoples lies become their version of reality. Had we had one hearing and the courts decided that I was being a parent to my child, then none of this would have happened. It is putrid. The school also employed a coach who happened to be of Haitian descent, and in a predominantly white school, was hailed as a god like figure among the white folk of Briarwood. He was their “black person” that made them hmmm….less white. Inclusive. A non-racist school! I can't speak to this person's morale on the daily anymore than he can mine…but let us suffice it to say that when I reached out to him to help, he was a total coward. My point is that all of these people profess Christ, but they are people and a lot of them are wolves in sheeps clothing. Why do we act so surprised? A few subpoenas later, I get to now see the truth. The conversations about me and the lies. As a believer in Christ, I believe that if you have a problem you go to the person. Not only did no one reach out to me, try to do what the bible says, they did the opposite. It is scary to me what money and status can do for a person. Even a pastor at Briarwood and his wife befriended my ex husband and all of the sudden their son is at school telling others that I am crazy and that he will never go to my house. Where did that come from? I reached out to Bruce Stallings over the matter after I went to the people and nothing was done to make peace. Even the church wanting to form their own police department and Kay Ivey signed it into legislation and having them tell me how and why it is ok. It is never okay to start your own police department at a private Christian school where you can make arrests and write tickets. What is to prevent anyone else justifying their own brand of militia in the name of protecting their sect? Things are usually swept under the rug and run like a Jesus corporation. If anyone says anything or makes a fuss they need to be silenced. Yet what are we sacrificing on the altar of peoples paychecks? Our own children. Dropping them off at a private Christian school to learn about Jesus but never living for Him at home? Never teaching your kids in the dailiness of life about Him. Why is that? Maybe people just don't have much going on with the Lord and are blind guides, scarecrows in a melon patch! They aren't drinking from the water of His word, so how can they lead others. The most terrifying thing to me is that my kids walk out of that school seeing Jesus as a subject to put on a shelf. That He is not their life and the length of their days. That He be a byword and something of the distant past. I am so convinced of Christ. I know whom I've believed. I am sure of my salvation. I don't want things to be like oh I have to go memorize my bible verse for a test. Like some great divide. I will say too that unless you are really on the surface and elite…it will be hard for you to truly connect with parents there. I just pray that whoever you are, that you will pray hard before you consider sending your child here. Do not torch your kid's relationship with Christ if that is why you are sending them there. I am not saying that is the ill fate of everyone. My son loves it there. Yet the people who are unbelieving and swimming in the shallow end are very pious and judgmental. Talk about the Lord and people will look at you so dumbfounded. I am not saying that there is not a massive opportunity to reach the lost there. Just know that you may be like Jeremiah and feel displaced and never see one person deepen their faith or come to know Him on that journey. I have been ostracized and disrespected in ways that I would call religious abuse. And the Pied Piper just keeps on playing the dirge while people who are sleep walking in life are led to their demise. The bible leaves no room for error here when we are told, “Wake up O sleeper and rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you.” Romans 13:11 Make no mistake, you and I will stand before a Holy God and give an account. The blood won't be on my hands for not sharing my story. Will you bow to the Lord or man? All I know is we better hasten the day because we are closer now then when we first believed. Romans 13:11 There was such a role reversal to me not even being able to have moral authority over my own child. Protected by the school, by the state, and by her parent. Yet I had no voice. It speaks profoundly to the end times: ”But understand this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For people will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, slanderers, without self-control, savage, opposed to what is good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, loving pleasure rather than loving God. They will maintain the outward appearance of religion but will have repudiated its power. So avoid people like these.“ 2 Timothy 3:1-5 NET So what are you to do? Avoid people like these. The Greek meaning αποφεύγω avoid, dodge, shun, parry, stay clear, eschew. Anyone that seeks to undermine your God given authority, and isn't even coming to you for accountability sake is a coward and most likely a worker of iniquity. Avoid them. The school should submit to what governs the church as they are a ministry of Briarwood Presbyterian Church. And Briarwood needs to submit to Gods word and the One who is the Word, Jesus. I could go on with things that would make your stomach churn. Times when a child should be believed (like when they have been touched inappropriately by someone) and in my case should not. So now as my reputation is tarnished it affects my son. So much damage because of so much cowardice. People will betray and fail you. They will say all kinds of evil about you…. Yet we are to remember that if people hate us, they hated Him first. He will never, no, not ever, leave or forsake you child. There are none like Him and blessed are you who do not turn away on account of Him and the things He has allowed in your life. This fallen soil is sometimes hard to tred. He still walks on water and parts the raging. sea.
Friday, February 16, 2024
Briarwood Christian School (A ministry of Briarwood Presbyterian Church in America) in Alabama in Review
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Monday, July 28, 2014
The mister is 3! Happy birthday baby boy!!
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Friday, July 18, 2014
Devotions: 1
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Friday, June 20, 2014
Post surgery
Praise The Lord Oh my soul... I'm really fatigued today and can't seem to escape the plethora of trials and health issues (not for the last decade anyway)... But with not an ounce of pride (I don't have any room for extra ounces) I'm so thankful I have like 5 1/2 more pounds to lose to get back to where I was before they had me on meds and etc for my neck. I say that because I was thinking I was too far gone (I know) and what I mean by that is that when you are my size and you gain weight, it calls for a new wardrobe...pretty much. So since March I've been laid up and not been able to exercise or anything I'm so thankful that I don't have to buy a whole new wardrobe esp when I can walk in a room and my favorite thing is probably going to be the one that's the most expensive. Please still keep me in your prayers as I have more issues after I'm healed up from this. Praying that The Lord will just take away the aneurysm on my left opthalmic artery if He wants to do so and dissolve this breast (I hate saying that word) health issue they've been following, along with the adenoma on my pituitary.
Also, I'm so thankful for all of the precious encouragers that I have, the friends who have prayed for me, brought me and mine meals, offered to run errands even if I say no, my fam who have watched my kids, cleaned my house...and just people who have been bearing with me through the long haul when I can't even return a phone call because of my neck.
Also, I'm pretty much tired every waking second and feel a dump truck load of guilt that I can't be a full on mom to my kids and that they don't really have play dates or tons of friends and are cooped up in the house with me. Poor Blair has hardly been anywhere and he hasn't been in the car with me. But this huge stretch of trials over the last decade and countless health issues, and go big or go home experiences, have refined me yes and greatly affected my quality of life and moreover at times have made me feel like the one person you don't want to see coming...like oh no here's that girl with the plague. Maybe that's my own cloak of condemnation I'm wearing but it's been tough and people who have never suffered (Lord have mercy on them) can be so judgmental and uncaring. Thankful in all things that I have suffered that I can comfort those with the same comfort I've received. Be it the death of a child, financial woes, chronic sickness with my kids, really random who gets that but jenny and her people illnesses, rod breaking his back, me having war story pregnancies, surgeries, crazy vital issues with my heart, MVP, massive kidney stones, meningitis (I'm feeling like the end of Hebrews 11 when there was not enough time to speak of it all. Lol) and a thousand other things...I have known The Lord as the God who sees me even when others don't understand and are full of judgment...there is such peace in knowing God sees and we don't have to explain our back story to Him...be it marriage trials or near death experiences... He sees and He knows and also your load and mine might not be the same but it's still our plight and not someone else's. We can't compare losses and we can't say oh God won't give us more than we can bear as it's not in the scriptures. We won't be tempted beyond what we are able to bear. He will provide a way of escape it's just whether we take it. However life can leave you feeling like a cannon ball is perpetually being launched through your insides, you may feel struck down but not destroyed. Like the heroes of the faith David, Elijah, and Paul you may even despair of life because it's so brutal. Life is not escaping trials or never going through the fire...it's about the ability to bear up under a load and persevere because of Christ. He owes us nothing and yet have us everything that we may have life and live with Him for all of eternity.
Posted by jennyhope at 2:55 PM 0 comments
Morgan's 9th birthday
Yes I rhyme but Morgs is going to be 9 this week and that is sort of causing me to freak!!!
Now I lay me in the bed
All of a sudden I have feelings of dread.
Morgan will turn 9 this week...
Where has the time gone?
Have I been asleep?
I want to stop time
But it's like chasing the wind.
Even though she's only nine
I've always known that she was the Lords & not mine...
My prayer for her has always been that she'd love The Lord with everything within...
Only The Lord knows what she means to me.
With tears in my eyes and a lump in my throat i realize that these days are numbered and this is not our home...
However, I cherish the days we've had so far...
From the moment she was laid on my chest there was no more room to self protect...she held the key to my heart, unlocked it and then threw it away... After June 24th 2005... I'd never ever be the same.
This long anticipated 5lb baby girl, was used by God to heal my tattered heart in places I didn't even know.
And still keeps using her and teaching me as I go.
I fail, I fall, I'm as imperfect as can be
But I doubt she will ever say, "my mom didn't love me!"
She's giving and caring and sometimes too daring. She's loyal, brave and a lover of truth...she has her flaws but don't we stinking all??
Praying she loves The Lord for all of her days and that she will acknowledge Him in all of her ways. Take hold of Him my child because He isn't words on a page...NO! He is your life and the length of your days.
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Saturday, June 14, 2014
Frozen party decorations
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Thursday, June 12, 2014
Hoosier cabinet refurbish
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Labels: chalk paint diy furniture hoosier cabinet, Furniture rehab
Tuesday, May 13, 2014
Over communication and the breakdown of relationships
Over communication, technology, and the good and the bad with mass communication in our day: I just saw a post where someone was saying how sorry they were over the death of a girl from a traffic accident in our area and her heart broke to find out that the young girl had gone to be with Jesus. Well, of course someone chimes in with all of the details on the girl and who hit the girl that died and etc. It flew all over me because I thought to myself is there anything sacred anymore or is our generation become that desensitized? I can't imagine how the family feels over this loss but just as equally tragic, how the person feels that hit her and what guilt they must feel and may feel for a very long time. I don't even want to know that kind of pain. Yet with "twitfacegram" (I just lumped them all together) people post things and others find out such devastating information that alters their life forever maybe by someone's tweet. Then, I got to thinking about how we are linked up and in and over and around with communication yet we are more disconnected from real life, love, contentment, and relationships than ever before. I can't tell you how many times I've had to ask rod to listen "with his eyes" because I'm not talking to him through his phone, computer, and no my mother wasn't a glassmaker so I won't be talking to him through the tv either. My kids have asked me the same thing. We are all guilty if we aren't intentional. Then, I thought man how many marriages are breaking up and broken down from mass communication? Confession: when I am in a disagreement with rod we text. Do you know how many words would be spared on both ends if we were not in this era of communication? Dude he'd have to get enough rolls of quarters and stop at every pay phone in sight for some disagreements. And before someone wants to get on here and bash me I'm just being honest and he texts me and is pretty wordy himself. Lol. But think about it. What if we exercised more restraint instead of going wait I called him 5 mins ago and why hasn't he/she answered? I'm going to blow him/her up (meaning call or text over and over) until they answer me. Really! Some of us are guilty but I'm just saying. How many relationships would still be intact if we were quick to pray instead of quick to call or text and blast someone out? What are we accomplishing anyway besides feelings of emptiness and as believers sometimes getting in the mud and fighting dirty with others all the while when His word poses the question of how can we love Him who we haven't seen if we can't even love those that we do see? There's so much noise and chaos and lack of peace because of the perpetual cycle we are in with having the ability to over communicate and acting on it instead of saying you know what...I can do this or that and say this or that or talk to this person or that person...but you know what? Maybe I won't. Maybe I'll choose like Daniel to be different and not defile myself or anyone else in this situation? Maybe I'll decide that hey I have to give an account for every idle word spoken and I'll just press pause here on this and go before the Throne of Grace and pour my heart out to God...and not go all dear diary media wise. I am not at all saying that we don't talk to the people God has strategically placed in our lives about the cares and burdens that pertain to us. We aren't called to just fellowship with Him vertically and not be in fellowship with others here on the horizon. That's enough to push anyone over the edge. I'm just saying that just because something is permissible doesn't mean it's beneficial. Self-control says I can do this but I choose not to. I choose to say yes to God and no to this. Really think about how many marriages would still be together if we were accountable and used some self-control. We are told that we are to be in this world but not of it and to not be overcome with evil but overcome evil with good. So I pray someone (yes maybe that one person that read to the end) will seek to build others up and not tear them down and bless others and not gossip or slander and help me Jesus as well but maybe won't press send on that scathing text or email you are about to send. Help us Lord! We live in a whole different age then our parents or grandparents did. Back when we talked on rotary phones that were attached to a wall. We are saying more and yet saying less. Lord sanctify us through and through with our communication.
Posted by jennyhope at 11:28 AM 0 comments
Monday, May 5, 2014
The days are like waters gone by
My kids are so different even though they look just like rod. Blair is just like me independent and stubborn. Morgan, she zones out like her dad and they'd both let me clean up after them all day long. So since Blair is my last one I had great plans to baby him. The little mister can be so mean and bossy and he argues me to death and then when I tell him I'm going to spank him he says, "spank my body". He makes me laugh, and he won't let me baby him for nothing. Morgan would still let me if I tried. So he yells a second ago: "mom (we are on formal terms at 2 yrs old. When he turns 3 he will probably call me mother) I just went poo poo in the potty. I need some pay-pah towels (tp)" and I didn't even try to potty train the boy. I love that baby smell and the smell of fresh diapers and baby lotion from head to toe. He tells Morgan to jump and she basically asks how high. We are working on that. Redeem the days Lord because they are short. I was doing my nightly praying over Morgan and looked at that baby girl who is almost as tall as me and has the sweetest and most loyal heart I know and just groaned a little over how fleeting the days are and as I held her and prayed while she was sleeping it wasn't so easy since she's growing so fast. I'm reminded and therefore have hope that this isn't our home as believers but we only have one spin here and the only way I've had one ounce of victory or made it through many long trials is Jesus and time spent in His word. I am sinful and fail miserably as a parent but keep seeking Him and it's just all I know... "Teach us to number our days aright that we may gain a heart of wisdom". Please Lord!
Posted by jennyhope at 1:24 PM 0 comments
Monday, April 28, 2014
We need to quit talking a big stick as believers and get down on our faces in prayer and face The Lord and build up and not tear down. Don't forget the quarry from which you've been hewn.
It's so funny how many can sing grace grace amazing grace, talk about grace, talk about mercy...and never extend it to another person. That usually tells me you've never really been a big recipient of that grace grace that runs down and covers you. Same thing about Gods love. We are to love Him and love others and love those who aren't easy to love. Sometimes that may mean loving at a distance if the relationship is abusive or if you can't stay out of the mud with the person while in close proximity but some of us (me included) need to shut up talking a big stick and be doers of the word. Even my statuses people read into them and assume I'm always talking about myself or whatever. Nope I'm doing life with people who are suffering and so many have no clue what these people are going through. And on my own end I've been judged or talked about with my health or people will chide when speaking to me, "oh wow y'all just don't get a break or you are just too young to have all of this! Or your break is coming!" Well, actually I haven't had a break but I've come to relate to people in ways I couldn't have apart from suffering and I cringe when people talk to me like that with a judgmental attitude because I sure don't want The Lord to turn and have to teach them about what it means to endure a long suffering of sorts. So, instead of making every stinking thing about us when we think someone isn't meeting our needs or something seems off with them... Why don't we get on our faces in prayer and try to build up and encourage one another. Don't we all have enough without being beat down by others. Especially believers. I love to talk but in James where it says we are to be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. We aren't called to not speak. When Christ called the disciples peter was a big mouth and He became, by the power of the Holy Spirit, a big mouth for Jesus. But we are so quick to speak, slow to listen, and quick to become angry and quick to judge. My point is that I know so many people now that are suffering. I mean their lives are falling apart at the seams. So let's love The Lord with every fiber we have and seek Him and love our neighbor AS OURSELF!! Let's mend and not tear. I'm more open about some stuff but general so others can relate or feel they aren't alone but especially with our attitudes of judgement what is it doing for others? How is it helping others toward freedom in Christ? It's not and people don't feel free to confess their sins one to another for accountability and to expose it to the light without bearing the weight of judgment from others...how many men and women wouldn't have jumped off the cliff figuratively speaking if they could at the beginning stages of an area of sin or struggle could truly confess it to someone and expose it to the light? How much self inflicted pain could be spared if we truly were our brothers and sisters keeper. But no! So many people are living in darkness that they can't look you in the eye and certainly aren't going to get involved in someone else's life because they have no firm footing to stand on. We are losing this battle waging because we aren't in the word, walking in the light, or getting out of our comfort zones. We can't fix our gaze on people. It has to be Jesus. He has to be our anchor whether we are accepted or rejected we can't live for the approval of man and be servants of Christ. We desperately need our minds to be renewed by the word. So today...cut someone some slack, don't be a seam ripper, you never know what someone is going through.
Posted by jennyhope at 10:47 AM 0 comments
Monday, March 10, 2014
A victim or an overcomer? It's up to you.
A mini novella for those 3 of you that will read something longer than a minute: I keep thinking about life being the sum total of choices. Some choices may have been made for you that were good or bad. Some it you may have had to grow up fast, suffered at the hands of cruel people, faced abuse or neglect, rejection or worse apathy. Some have suffered long with loss, financial difficulty, loneliness, depression, longings that have gone unfulfilled, some have sordid or sinful (don't we all) pasts that they feel branded by. We wouldn't have enough time or space to list it all. However, what will you do with that now? Will you remain a victim and grow bitter? Because really it is a choice and knowing Christ and taking hold of Him and following Him is the only path to lasting and true liberty of the soul but it's a choice. You can choose to hold onto the past of what so and so wasn't to you or even how the church or Christians have let you down. Let me say, if I was focused on people or the church I'd have sadly turned away from Christ on account of them because we (myself included) are so deeply flawed and yet we will all give an account. My daughters teacher gave the class an assignment. She gave each one a dollar and read to them the parable of the talents and they were to come back after an allotted time and see what they did with the dollar. I'm not at all boasting about my child but she caused me to humble myself when I saw her scraping together ALL of her money to turn in toward missions $52.60 and she even wanted to make sure where it went. That's certainly not what I would have done when I was 8. However, she came home and said one kid spent their dollar. It was such an illustration to me. We have this one life here and are we going to be victims? Are we going to lay down in defeat? Or perhaps would we see our need for Christ? Our need to forgive even if it doesn't mean reconciliation... Will we see that He is life and the length of our days and not a number on a priority list? He's it! Will all other idols be dethroned in your life? It's a choice. We can choose to reject Him or become a disciple of His. He came as fully God and fully man and of course was a Jewish Rabbi so Rabbis had followers and they went where the rabbi went and stayed where He stayed and covered themselves in the dust of their feet. They strung pearls as they listened to His teaching and passed along teaching by oral tradition. But just like Judas, many may profess Christ and yet never put feet to their faith. Never have fruit. Faith without deeds is dead and so many also will not open their bible and know Him for themselves. It takes time, commitment and a life of worship. You can't rely on people who peddle Jesus for personal gain. I can't help but think about something I heard Pastor Harry Reeder say about the judgment seat of Christ and how the sheep and the goats will be there (believers have no condemnation but will receive reward or suffer loss) however the goats will be separated and will suffer eternally as they chose not to live for Christ here and won't live with Him for all of eternity. Y'all that scares me to death. Not because I'm concerned over my salvation as there is nothing I'm more certain of in all of life...but for those who would rather live for this life and suffer for all of eternity. So many think of what they have to give up like God is the great killjoy of the cosmos and what does it profit a man to gain the whole world yet forfeit his soul? I remember standing at a crossroads at 18 yrs old and someone asking me how did I know I was going to heaven and I said because I was a good person and went to church. The most loving thing that person could do was tell me the truth. We can't earn our salvation. Our salvation is by faith alone in Christ alone but just like the disciples when Jesus told them one of them would betray Him they were all perplexed and wondered if was them? That's just it judas fit in so much so that he had them fooled. I don't believe in losing your salvation. I do believe that passage in Hebrews is so taken out of context and scripture interprets scripture so you can't base that off of one scripture. I'm not going to argue it either but I will say are you truly a follower of Christ or do you just go to church and have a form of godliness but deny it's power? To know Him and love Him means there will be fruit and why we get in our minds that we come to Him with all this baggage and then try to hide our sin or play fake it til you make it is beyond me and nonsense. We will all struggle with sin as the book of Romans speaks of in chapters 6 & 7. We should struggle so I ask (but please don't answer in written form) is there even a struggle? Are you in the faith? Do not lay down over what has been dealt to you or your past sin. By Gods grace get up!!!!! Return to Him. Repent.. Turn around from the direction you are going and turn back to Jesus if you have gotten off track. It's not too late. Use what the enemy meant for your harm to bring about much good in Jesus Name! You are more than an overcomer!
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Monday, March 3, 2014
Don't put your trust in man or yourself either
Posted by jennyhope at 11:03 AM 1 comments
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
The woman at the Well
One of my favorite encounters with Jesus in scripture is in John 4 when He meets the Samaritan woman at the well. For one of many reasons: 1) I would have been her apart from the work of the living water of Jesus in my own soul. In fact I really was just like her in so many ways looking for a man to fill me and determine my worth. Had Jesus not saved me from myself and also had I not cooperated with Him to be free...I'm convinced that I would be on my 5th husband by now give or take a few but would have been one big relational disaster of a train wreck. 2) I've coined the phrase: the
Woman at the well syndrome... When I see myself or others who have looked or are looking for love in all the wrong places, only to come up thirsty still 3) I am a woman. She was considered unclean to the Jews because she was a Samaritan. Samaritans were despised because when the 10 tribes of Israel were taken captive to Assyria, the Israelites intermarried with their great enemies and thus were despised because of the evil Assyrians and their wicked idolatry. And she was an outcast however Jesus met her in her sin. I'm so sure she felt branded like she wore a scarlet letter but tried to at least wear it well, living up to her reputation as it was all she knew. I wonder if she thought she was just meeting the next man she could move onto? 4) I love how Jesus probes and cuts straight to the heart of the matter with her, being the great Soul-ologist that He is! He speaks to this Samaritan who is a woman, He exposes her sin yet doesn't condemn her but clearly gives her dignity. When we face God over our sin, He clothes us with robes of righteousness and removes our filthy garments...we can't face man, without facing Him first, and walk away with a shred of dignity. 5) she like us can't cut the bull with Jesus. He told her everything she'd ever done! By having our sin exposed to the light we can receive forgiveness for our sins and repentance. Shame is satans game. Jesus doesn't shame us. He shows us our need and offers salvation found only in Him. There is something so freeing that we can't keep it to ourselves after encountering Him. Especially, if we realize the quarry from which we have been hewn and how destitute we are in are wandering. How thirsty we've been searching for something or someone or anything that will fill us up, but never being satisfied. We sometimes think that maybe this is it...this is the thing that's going to do it for us and by the time we are in deep we realize we've wreaked even more havoc on ourselves and are as empty as ever.
I love though that He is still the lifter of our heads. I wonder if she was able to look Him in the eyes? However, she met the Messiah at that well and I wish I could go into the geographical part of it and this not be even longer ;). He was tired and thirsty with the physical limitations of an earthly tent. He was still fully God but fully man. He was tempted in every stinking way that we are yet was without sin. Yet He pursued her and pursues us still. He meets us in our sin and great need. I'd like to suggest something to those of you with unrealistic expectations of men. Jesus is the Rider on the White Horse not your man or the man you think you are looking for. Drop some of your expectations that are so lofty and put them in Christ. No one can be Jesus to you but Jesus. Let others off the hook and I'm not talking about settling or abuse but only Jesus ruling from the seat of your emotions. He will not share His glory with another.
Finally, I love that where the spirit of The Lord is there is liberty. She faced Him and was able to run and tell others because of the freedom of knowing someone knows you fully, forgives you, loves you unabashedly, and longs for you to come to Him.
Jesus knows me this I love!
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Friday, February 7, 2014
Today if you hear His voice do not harden your hearts
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Tuesday, February 4, 2014
Don't ever forget
Please don't ever ever for one second forget that as far as your fleshly desires, satan promises much and delivers so little. He has no heart and is out to destroy you. Don't forget it. He will kiss you on one cheek and then betray you. Always!!! You can take it to the bank. Gods word and His ways can be trusted. Anyone who has ever gone their own way and yet loves God will testify to this. The enemy has a plan for you and so does Christ. Greater is He who is in you than he who is in this world. This world and all that is in it and the lust of the flesh will all pass away but His word stands firm, fixed in the heavens and will never pass away. Gen 4:7 If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it."
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Sunday, February 2, 2014
He never grows tired or weary
It's so freeing to know that while we may wear others out or at times feel so needy... that we can go to the One who never grows tired or weary. We are never to needy for Him. In our finite minds we can't comprehend how One can be so vast and need nothing and no one to sustain Him...and be so attentive to each one of us at the same time. Oh the depths of the riches and knowledge of God how unsearchable are His ways...they are beyond tracing out. I'm so glad that I worship and serve a God that can't be explained away and yet He is so real and evident. Please hear it from one who knows. Don't spill what is so precious to you or your self so cheaply before people who can't fill you or redeem you or even begin to understand you. Get before Him and cry and groan and let His spirit intercede when you don't even have the words to pray. I'll say it again: You'll never be to needy for Him. Most likely you will walk away full and not depleted. Confess, cry, repent, and return.
"indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord watches over you— the Lord is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. (Psalm 121:4-6 NIV)
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Saturday, February 1, 2014
Self-centeredness
One thing I've noticed about our human inclination is how some people are so focused on what someone else wasn't to them, and live in the past carrying around dead bones and yet they are also usually the ones that don't recognize what's in front of them or just how blessed they really are. I mean how long do you live in the past and let it rob you of current or future blessing? It's also very narcissistic as far as being so centered on yourself, and as long as you are looking to the well of human flesh and blood to fill you...Newsflash: that well is dry in terms of deriving any lasting worth or confidence. You can only build someone up so much and you can't be Jesus to them. You can't maintain someone else's happiness or personhood or worth. And usually you will be discarded easily so guard your heart like proverbs 4:23 talks about. It's the word for guarding or tending to a garden. People that are so centered on themselves and the past or on who wasn't what to them can't have room enough in their hearts to care about others and usually are never satisfied. They are robbed of contentment and have nothing to give. It really is a thief like Unforgiveness when we won't look to The Lord to deal with our past or present.
Psalm 105:4 Look to the LORD and his strength; seek his face always.
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Monday, January 27, 2014
His word is alive and active and invades
It's funny how scripture invades. I was trying to remember fractions tonight and need to re school myself but of course when I'm threading this needle a scripture comes to memory. His word is alive and active. It's one thing to know it and another to walk it out! Help me Lord! Matthew 19:24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”
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Friday, January 24, 2014
Streams in the desert January 24th
This has been right where I've been so many times and yet lately I've received so much encouragement but The Lord has used the silent times to teach me to derive my worth from Him and draw from His word. So fitting that I would read this just now.
But the dove found no rest for or the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him... And the dove came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf (Genesis 8:9-11).
God knows just when to withhold from us any visible sign of encouragement, and when to grant us such a sign. How good it is that we may trust Him anyway! When all visible evidences that He is remembering us are withheld, that is best; He wants us to realize that His Word, His promise of remembrance, is more substantial and dependable than any evidence of our senses. When He sends the visible evidence, that is well also; we appreciate it all the more after we have trusted Him without it. Those who are readiest to trust God without other evidence than His Word always receive the greatest number of visible evidences of His love.
--C. G. Trumbull
Believing Him; if storm-clouds gather darkly 'round,
And even if the heaven seem brass, without a sound?
He hears each prayer and even notes the sparrow's fall.
And praising Him; when sorrow, grief, and pain are near,
And even when we lose the thing that seems most dear?
Our loss is gain. Praise Him; in Him we have our All.
Our hand in His; e'en though the path seems long and drear
We scarcely see a step ahead, and almost fear?
He guides aright. He has it thus to keep us near.
And satisfied; when every path is blocked and bare,
And worldly things are gone and dead which were so fair?
Believe and rest and trust in Him, He comes to stay.
Delays are not refusals; many a prayer is registered, and underneath it the words: "My time is not yet come." God has a set time as well as a set purpose, and He who orders the bounds of our habitation orders also the time of our deliverance.
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Sunday, January 19, 2014
Wrestling with God
I've said this before and it begs repeating but we must take our past, the good, bad, the ugly and face The Lord over it. Even if we wrestle in the word to "feel" forgiven we must wrestle. The Lord knew every sin you and me would commit before the foundation of the world. He sent His Son to atone for our sins yet so many refuse the peace He offers or live with what feels like a Scarlett letter tattooed on their chest. When The Lord met with the Samaritan woman at the well (I could teach a whole series on that lol) He told her everything about her and she ran to tell others about this Man, the Christ that she encountered and she was excited about it! Jesus gave that woman, a Samaritan, a woman looking for love in all the wrong places, dignity. He will change your name proverbially speaking and robe you in garments of white, not keep you bound in grave clothes. Which brings me to the point. We are NEVER EVER as much as we want to...called to forget our past. Paul was saying, forgetting what was behind, which were his past achievements mainly. So we can't live off of yesterday's relationship with The Lord. It has to be day to day. Yet when we've wrestled with God over the past and He does not condemn us, then who can? So, again I bring up this Hebrew word picture of a man rowing in a canoe backwards (please visualize) into the future but very much focused on his past. If we don't remember the quarry from which we were mined from we will not gain a lick of wisdom and we are likely to be the fool repeating his/her folly. We can't go back and undo what's done but we can pull something beautiful from the trash and do things different the next time. With the LORD is unfailing love and full redemption. It is for freedom that Christ has set you free. Stand firm and do not be burdened again by a yoke of slavery!! Don't ever forget the pit He has pulled you from.
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Friday, January 17, 2014
Be careful what you ask for...
Be careful what you ask for. Be careful that you don't forget The Lord and what He has done like the Israelites in the wilderness. We all have God given legitimate desires but if we seek to get them met in an illegitimate way we will suffer greatly. Make no mistake. What's scarier is how we can get what we asked for or have made an idol out of and God can send leanness into our souls. He is so merciful but we also have something called free will. We can harden our hearts against God and yes according to Romans 1 He can hand us over to the hardening of our hearts. Scares me to death! Today if you hear His voice do not harden your hearts against Him! So be careful what you ask for esp if it has become who or what you worship.
But they had a wanton craving in the wilderness, and put God to the test in the desert; he gave them what they asked, but sent a wasting disease among them. (Psalm 106:14, 15 ESV)
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Kiss of betrayal
I'm reminded once again that the enemy masquerades himself as light. He comes in the form of whatever is the thing that will bait you. He has nothing new up his sleeve but will prey on weakness. He promises so much then just like Judas Iscariot the betrayer, he ensnares you and kisses you on the cheek and betrays you. Never forget that satan has no heart. He will kick you at your lowest and leave you to hang yourself in a field with your guts spilled open. his ways aren't worth it. #jennyisms
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Wednesday, January 15, 2014
Bringing calamity on yourself
In Jeremiah 2:17 the question is asked of Gods chosen people who had turned their backs on God and turned to idols and Even returned to lands of slavery like Egypt and to the vilest of their enemies, the Assyrians, as to whether or not they brought this calamity on themselves. Why? They lacked fear of the LORD. They brought their calamity on themselves. I say that to say that I've studied a lot about pits in scripture and could go on into a 5 paragraph essay but I won't. Anyway, in Gods mercy we can be different. He can and will deliver us from a slimy pit that we either jumped into or someone pushed us in. I love what Chuck Swindoll says when speaking of the life of Paul and how we tend to forget his gruesome past toward people of the way. Swindoll says, "The steel of greatness is forged in the pit. It's true of all of us. Don't ever forget that, especially when you're in the pit and are convinced there's no way anything of value will come of it." God so rich in mercy is still in the business of rebuilding the ruins, bringing beauty from the ashes and also using our worst moments to help snatch others from the flames and even use our greatest failures and departures for His glory even if the school of hard knocks was not the way to go. Until He calls you home, He has plans for you. You aren't done. Wrestle the thing out with God so that mans opinion fades and you are liberated and no longer the same.
Have you not brought this upon yourself by forsaking the Lord your God, when he led you in the way? (Jeremiah 2:17 ESV)
#jennyisms
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Tuesday, December 10, 2013
Wising up
I get a lot of prayer requests and pray for a lot of people. I'm not going to tell you I will and then not. Anyway, some of you know I will obsess in prayer for you. Lol. You may wish you didn't ask me to pray. But as I sit here now I'm just awash with how every inclination of our hearts is evil apart from the Holy Spirit working within us. I don't care what anyone says we are evil and wretched and capable of the most vile of sins in our natural man. If Christ is not "THE Priority" and we are left to ourselves, we will allow the enemy and our flesh (our own free will) to not only self-destruct us but to steal, to kill, and to destroy us of the life Christ died and rose to give us. Let's face it most of us have taken some big field trips to sin to learn this one the hard way. And if you think you are standing firm...take heed you stand lest you fall before you proclaim how you would never do such and such. The enemy is after your testimony since he can't have your soul if you are in Christ, as you are sealed unto the day of redemption. Anyway, I also can't stand when people say Christians are hypocrites. Why don't we call it what it is? Sinners. We will all struggle with sin until we lay these vessels down. So of course we are going to sin and miss the mark and are told to watch or better yet, to guard our life and doctrine closely. So I say all of this to say that The Lord leads those that are His. Has He given you red flags about someone or something in your life? Do you need to get out a sheet of paper and ask Him to show you and confess your sins so you can be in fellowship with Him? If we walk in darkness, living to gratify our flesh, y'all we just can't think clearly. We get duped and the scary part is that we can be handed over to the hardness of our own heart. Not only that we can't have the assurance of integrity and stand on The Rock or a firm place when we are living a life of duplicity. You and me may think that following Gods way didn't work at times but that's a lie straight from the devil. He is for you. His commands are not burdensome. What's burdensome is when you douse yourself in kerosine and light the match to your own flame. It's scary business. Lots wife was turned into a pillar of salt because in the Hebrew terminology she looked back on sodom and Gomorrah with longing and affection over that which would bring about her destruction. She loved Sodom and Gomorrah. So what good is salt if it loses it's saltiness? Do you want to just wander in a wasteland pining away for the affections of mankind and living out of a perpetual suitcase of unmet needs, and desperation? I'm reminded of how short this life is as i did pray for 5 people and their families who have lost loved ones in the last week and month. We don't have long here y'all. Eternity is a long time. That's what we've got to get our eyes on! So again I say, let's not be duped. The enemy is not looking out for you. Sin desires to master you as it crouches at your door. We are in a war. Let's quit getting entangled in civilian affairs. If God is for us who can be against us! The enemy will kiss you on the cheek, give you what you thought you wanted and betray you every-time. It's sickening. Open our eyes Lord!!! Let's go to Him and confess and repent. We have to cling to Him in these perilous days.
The integrity of the upright guides them, but the crookedness of the treacherous destroys them. The righteousness of the blameless keeps his way straight, but the wicked falls by his own wickedness. The righteousness of the upright delivers them, but the treacherous are taken captive by their lust. (Proverbs 11:3, 5, 6 ESV)
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Saturday, November 9, 2013
Speaking from a wound.
7 But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."
(I am a little nervous over this post because I want it to come out right)...
I have thought about something all afternoon and all while I worked tonight. So of course, I will blog about it. I was reading a Christian speakers blog today and I read something that really bothered me that was addressed to the way women dress. It was her blog and she is free to say what she wants but as I read it I felt sorry that I had thought or said some of the same things about other women in the past. I taught in the singles ministry for a long time and I can remember seeing girls that would come in my class that were dressed very inappropriately and I would comment to myself at times and sometimes speak about how we as women can cause others to stumble by the way we dress (and I specifically meant that just for them...just so you will know the condition of my heart). I spoke those words not so much because I cared about them or even how they could cause another to stumble... but in some way they made me feel insecure so it would cut me to the core. Yes, as Christians we should care about how we dress and should care about not causing another to lust after us and etc. But as I read this woman's post I thought about how we tend to address (and she was speaking of a complete stranger) what someone should not be wearing when really it is an issue of the what's in their heart and not what is on the outside. It reminds me of the verses on our speech...it is not the word's we say but the condition of our heart where our words come from.
Matthew 15:18-20
18But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man 'unclean.' 19For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. 20These are what make a man 'unclean'; but eating with unwashed hands does not make him 'unclean.' "
That reminds me of the self-help trend where we focus on fixing the externals instead of having much needed heart surgery and getting to the core issue of our problems. Take an alcoholic for example. Yes, that is an addiction but usually at the root of the problem can beloneliness that needs to be filled by Christ, or maybe pain management...just drinking until you can't feel instead of dealing with your pain head on.
Women know that dressing in a seductive manner will draw attention and they will feel powerful. That is why they do it. I would say that when we dress to gain the attention of another man (that is not our husband...if you are married) that we are struggling with insecurity. Plain and simple we will use our body as a way to validate. Someone who is dressing to gain attention is seeking to be validated by the attention they get. But let me ask you this? Have you ever felt that same way? We are all tempted to yet we will so brutally look down on others. I am not agreeing with the immodest dress that is out there by any means. I am also not saying that you shouldn't be cute. There will always be someone thinner than us, prettier than us, younger looking than we are and that is just a fact. This is getting personal but one night there was a famous girl on television posing in a commercial and it was very much a commercial that was sexual in nature. I immediately shouted at the TV so Rod could hear me "She's a piece of trash!" Rod stopped me and said "Jenny, listen to yourself...she is made in the image of God whether she is living that way or not...you shouldn't call her a piece of trash." I immediately got defensive and felt like he was taking up for her. Do you know why I lashed out at the TV and her ad...it was because I felt like she could gain the attention of my man and that I was not good enough (I am not saying he was giving her attention either) so I wanted to lash out at the wrong she was doing and degrade her as a person because in some way it made me feel small and insecure. That is the truth. The Lord knows the condition of every heart and it is His kindness that leads us to repentance. Instead of picking up stones and casting them at people we need to pray for others that may not be in the same place that we are. And in the church we should teach in love regarding the way that a Christian woman should dress, because not everyone is in the same place that we are. We don't come out and throw stones of condemnation especially when we don't even know where someone is at with the Lord. How quick we are to label people instead of praying for them. I am so guilty of this. Especially as women how many times have we judged someone else based on appearance when we've never even had the first conversation with them.
I pray that the Lord will make you and I secure enough in our relationship with Him that we can love others and find our worth in Him. Also, I hope that we can pray for others instead of looking down on them. Don't you think that deep down when we lash out about another woman that in some way we really just want to cut her down to make ourselves feel better? These are just my opinions. I have dealt with insecurity so much and I have been hurt and betrayed in this life to...but I truly want to love and pray for people who do not treat their temple as holy instead of letting it shake me and make me feel insecure. Let's face it we will all have this problem until Christ comes to call us home. We can honor the Lord with our beauty, teach our children to dress modestly, and speak the truth in love but we can't control the rest.
1 Peter 3:2-4
when they see the purity and reverence of your lives. 3Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. 4Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight.
Psalm 45:11
11 The king is enthralled by your beauty; honor him, for he is your lord.
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