This is My Testimony - From Death to Life 1-28-26

I woke up this morning drifting back and forth from some kind of dream I can’t recall, to awake and aware that this song was very much in mind: “This is my testimony, from death to Life, 'cause Grace rewrote my story, I’ll testify, by Jesus Christ the Righteous, I’m justified! This is my testimony, this is my testimony!”

I started thinking about the details of my past, reflecting back on my actions, reactions and outcomes, the changes God has made - sometimes despite my best (?) efforts instead of because of them! Trying to be “the good one”, then stubbornly refusing to follow the rules, self-absorbed, self-pitying… both the things done to me and the ways I did not respond well and hurt others.

Then I started reflecting on the past few days, visiting my brother in the hospital, making plans for an upcoming conference, planning for the post-abortion classes offered by our local pregnancy center,... shoveling a LOT of snow – and being rescued by a friend with a working snowblower when ours refused to start, despite pre-storm prep. and my new responses... God has indeed rewritten my story.

“But the miracle that I just can’t get over is my name registered in heaven!…”

I did a lot of driving yesterday. I usually fill most of that time now with praise music, sermons or Bible teaching videos playing on my phone on the dashboard. Yesterday on the way there was Preston Morrison from Pillar Church in Scottsdale AZ talking about how the Bride (of Christ) is asleep and there aren’t enough “workers” in the fields. He was challenging the status quo formula where 20% of the people in most organizations do 80% of the work while the rest are “getting by” with being served instead of finding a way TO serve. He expressed some urgency that we “don’t know the time and the hour” and we should be contributing, serving and ready - and helping others get ready.

On the way back it was Dan Mohler talking about not taking adversity personally, and instead, allowing God to use it to reflect His Light through you. He brought up a verse that I hadn’t remembered, 2 Timothy 2:10. He pointed out that Paul explained the purpose for our sufferings – and why he endured his sufferings with such hope and expectancy – not “for the sake of Christ”, which absolutely would make sense in the passage, but “for the sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory”. He further said the things we go through – when we go through them with the right attitude and a mindset of helping others – can actually lead others who wouldn’t know God yet, get to see His effects in and on us and want to be able to respond with that kind of confident expectation of His Grace to endure trials with a peaceful heart... leads OTHERS to salvation!

It was a back to back attitude adjustment that felt like it recalibrated my heart!

Of course, typing this out at the moment, the conviction is coming up over the moments I resorted to old behavior patterns, described someone (to two different people) in a derogatory way because I didn't like the way they answered an email, and told someone about something good I did (and being reminded “I have my reward” by the approval I sought from people, instead of “not letting the right hand know what the left hand was doing”). The really neat thing about all this is Romans 8:1-2 comes right on its heels, reminding me there is "no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, who walk after the Spirit and not after the flesh.” SO… I am grateful I can confess and release those things to God, receive His forgiveness and healing and go forward today with my attitude refreshed, and my heart in tune again to listen to God’s step by step promptings of “this is the Way, walk in it.” (Isaiah 30:21). I can be confident that He IS leading me, teaching me, refining me, and “leading me in the Way everlasting” – one day at a time! Have a blessed day!