Good morning, world. Things are looking pretty good from the front porch of my farm in Virginia today. I met with the Living God before He lit up the world, and as I asked for Wisdom for where I’m going, He spent some time reminding me of where I’ve been instead. Each piece of life that He brought to my mind was given Godly-clarity, and I could see how each of those pieces prepared me for such a time as this. Each thread of pain and each thread of tribulation…each time of conflict and each time of brokenness…ALL working together for Good in my Life today. The thought of those things didn’t make me sad at all…they made me EXCITED because I could see all the Work that He put into me to prepare me for the Next Step in my Life. Now with a big dose of His Wisdom and I’m definitely ready for the Journey! Isn’t that the way you look at your Preparation Time too?

There are so many people who like to bury the past, as if it was all a mistake and it served no good purpose at all…except to be a miserable season in life in their eyes, that is. As for me, ” I declare His Righteousness in the great assembly” so I hear from plenty of people claiming to share my faith that tell me the past has no place in the Present; and they cringe when I talk about mine. They like to remind the world that they’re new creatures in Christ and that the past has been washed away; but that’s not true. The SINS of the past have been washed away, but the Past had a Purpose as surely as the Future does!. It’s only when we see “the past” for what it really is, and we understand how God uses it ALL as part of His Perfect Plans for us, that sharing the past becomes a testimony to the Saving Grace of a Merciful God, and that’s a VERY powerful way that we can Glorify Him to the world! What better way would I have to encourage a broken person than by telling them about how broken I was before I met Him too? What better way can I assure them that I serve a God of a million second chances than to share with them how many times I’ve fallen and how He picks me up and He forgives me every time I ask Him too? What better way do I have to paint of Picture of what He can do with a life than to tell them where I’ve been and show them where I am? What better way do I have to assure them that there is NOTHING that He won’t forgive than to share with them what He has forgiven me of too? Love is one thing…Restoration is another! When we leave out all of those things we’d rather forget, we leave out the Best Part of the Story!

I might make a lot of people claiming to share my Faith cringe when I talk about my past, but I give a whole lot of others Hope when I do. I know firsthand how God can change a heart and Tenderize it to so that it can be Useful to Him for Eternal things. I’ve taken more punches than I can count but I see the Purpose in it all, and I’ll never stop talking about the past, the present and the Future. There is nothing He can’t forgive, nobody He can’t Restore and nothing He can’t use to bring Glory to Himself! If you doubt that, just look at my Life. I’m always happy to Share it with the world because ALL of it made me who I am today…a child of the Living God and a Vessel for the King!

How about you?