Left for dead....

I was invited to give my testimony at a women's conference at a local church. And though I was out of town and could not attend...my first thought was..."Good timing God...cause we both know they ain't ready!"

My testimony comes from a time in my life when I was left for dead. Folks were trying to break me. Bruising me. Beating me. Backbiting me. They were trying to kill me. And...almost did...BUT GOD. Enter testimony. It's bloody. And it's gory. And it helped to make me what I am today. And I think that's a big problem for most people. I refuse to be shamed. Or made to feel less than. Because God used it to make me who I am...I refuse to sit in a corner somewhere and just die.

I spent a good bit of the rest of the day trying to clean up my testimony. You see...the enemy almost had me convinced that it was too ugly for polite company.

When I tell you that thing stayed on me. Whew. For nearly 8 hours...that is all I thought about. God and I were going back and forth on that thing. Or. Truthfully...I was going back and forth on that thing. God was oddly silent.

So. I asked someone a very simple question...and oddly...they said a whole bunch of nothing. Which turned out to be extraordinarily something. Just not at all what I expected. I was looking for God in the wind. I was looking for God in the earthquake. I was looking for God in the fire. But in true God fashion...He showed up in a small still voice. (1 Kings 19:11-13!)

The person directed me to John 8:1-11...a very familiar story in the Bible. The woman caught in adultery. Remember when Jesus bent down to write in the sand? The Bible never tells us what He was writing. And I firmly believe that when God leaves out minor details...they apply to the individual reading in a major way. Case in point. I imagine that Jesus wrote...the first time..."Their test will be your testimony"...and then..."They came for the show...but they should have stuck around for the Word" the second time He bent down.

Her accusers left....one by one....from oldest to youngest....as the truth of Jesus' words hit them where they lived...in their own sins. There were none with out sin to cast that first stone. And though they wouldn't/couldn't admit it....they knew that Jesus was just who He said He was...so they knew that though they could lie to each other...they could not lie to God!

Anywho....

What struck a chord in me....was how Jesus dealt with her sin. He didn't excuse it, condone it, or ignore it. He simply said to her..."Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more."

Had her accusers stuck with JESUS...continued to walk with JESUS...had they not left after they realized there would be no show...they would have gotten a Word that could have changed their lives.

Don't miss this...

When you show up for the wrong reasons...you are blinded and deaf to the right reasons...because you're too busy looking out...to bother looking IN.

They missed the blessing in the lesson...."Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more." They had her dead to rights. She was guilty. She did it. They knew it. Jesus knew it. And she knew that He knew it. But Jesus KNEW her past the sin to her soul...and that was His concern. Her soul. Not her sin. Grab hold to that. The soul. Not the sin. "Go. And sin no more."

So. My test is a part of my testimony. I can't clean it up for anyone. I can't make it easier to swallow. It is what it is. I know it. Jesus knows it. And I won't sugarcoat it for anyone. Because when you know what God says about you DESPITE your mess...it's hard to care what people say about you TO SPITE you of your mess.

Besides. If I can't be brutally honest about the depths of my BEEN THROUGH...how can I expect people to be able to wrap their minds around my BREAK THROUGH.

God dropped a song in my spirit..."Life and Favor"...by the Reverend John P. Kee and New Life... watch it here... https://youtu.be/x_0E_SmIg3A ...and it goes...

I’m delivered, here’s my story
Life and Favor upon me He brought me out
You don’t know it, let me tell it
Life and favor upon me He brought me out

God of Mercy He who loves me
Life and favor upon me He brought me out
Oh how wondrous is my story
Life and favor He brought me out

Can’t imagine what I’ve gone through
Life and favor upon me He brought me out
Can’t imagine what I’ve gone through
Can’t imagine.

And you know it was a praise party for the rest of the ride home, right?

Side note: There will be those who won't like me after I share my testimony. There will be those who will be offended. There will be those who CONTINUE to hate me. And that's okay. Revelation 12:11 says that we overcome by the blood AND the word of our testimony. And it continues to say that we do not love our lives so much as to shrink from death. Remember...I've been left for dead before.  Death has no sting for me.

Folks need to realize that no amount of pettiness or plots...can kill what God has PURPOSED. You can TRY to leave me for dead...BUT GOD...

Job knew a lil something about being left for dead. The enemy tried it...yes he did...BUT GOD! Job says of God, "You have granted me life and favor, And Your care has preserved my spirit." (Job 10:12) Whew...Job, you better tell it!

Jesus continues to say to that crowd who came for the show in John 8:12...“I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.” I am following Jesus. Which means folks can leave me for dead...but they can't snuff out the light of my life...because Jesus has your girl's light set on FABULOUS!

John 8:1-11

But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Now early in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people came to Him; and He sat down and taught them.

Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst, they said to Him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do You say?”

This they said, testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, as though He did not hear.

So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.” 

And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground.

Then those who heard it,  being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.

When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, “Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and  sin no more.”