A TRULY HAPPY EASTER!

I am unable to write an original post this Easter Sunday so I am sharing a prayer I wrote here a few years back along with a photo taken today:

I pray that each of you will know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus loved you so much He died so you can have new life.

I pray that you will experience the amazing freedom that comes from resting securely in His love.

I pray that the knowledge that He was passionate enough about you to be broken for you will bring the complete healing that you need in your heart.

I pray that you will fall so in love with Him that all the trials and hurts of this world will pale in comparison to His beauty.

Love to you all and HAPPY EASTER!
Elysa

NO MATTER

No matter how you celebrate this holiday weekend --- eggs or no eggs, chocolate crosses or jelly beans, old hymns or contemporary choruses --- I pray you'll experience Jesus in a very real and powerful way. He lived, died, and then rose again so you and I could have new life, eternal life, amazing life in Him. No matter how many rules you follow or how hard you try, you'll never experience the peace and freedom that comes when you trust Him with your life and let Him do His work in your soul, heart, and mind.

He's better than you think He is, more loving and wise than you can ever imagine.  But don't just take my word for it, give Him the chance to show you for Himself.

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy;

 I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

  John 10:10

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, 

that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 

John 3:16

MY FAVORITE IMAGES OF THE DAY

My eyes beheld some wonderful images today --- the little kids looking all cute in fun costumes for the church activities they attended, the beautiful full moon as Jim and I walked home, and the delicious array of food set out for our We Will Go fellowship meal tonight were just some of them.

But the two images that stand out are of my two oldest sons worshiping the Lord tonight at the special time our ministry had tonight and...

...sweet Katrina with her 40th birthday cake. She's one of our neighbors. She's facing some rough things right now but she chose to come out and spend her birthday night with us.

Halloween can be really rough for a lot of the folks in our area of the city. We've been told that violence and other  deeds of darkness really increase on this night. We Will Go holds an outdoor night of praise, prayer, scripture, and testimony every October 31st. We do this to push back the darkness, to bring the love light of Jesus into our neighborhood, and to provide a safe, welcoming place for people like Katrina.

We want our neighbors to always know that Jesus is their safe place. An ever help in times of danger. The One who will never turn them away. The One who is bigger than all the evil in this world. The One who has and does and will overcome the darkness. And the one, if they will only trust Him, will help them fight every rough thing coming their way. He'll stand right by their side, no matter what.

He'll do that for me. He'll do it for you, too.

[F]or everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

I John 5:4-5

SAME and DIFFERENT

As a kid, I attended Camp Garaywa as a "Girls in Action" camper. In my college years, I spent a summer there as a camper. And then as a mom, I sent my own daughters there.

But despite the nearly forty years that have passed since I first went to Garaywa, some things have not changed.

The Cabins still look like I remember them from the 70's.

And this sweet lady's portrait still gazes serenely over the dining hall.

But some things have definitely changed not just from my childhood days as a camper but also my summer as a counselor in the late 80's.

WiFi is now available.  WiFi hadn't even been invented yet back during my earlier Garayway days.

The dining hall has been remodeled, expanded, and now offers more options such as a salad bar and all-you-can-drink soda machines.

Just like Garaywa has changed some but also stayed the same, so have I.  I'm still going there, but as said earlier, now it is usually in the role of mom-to-campers as I pick my girls up on the last day of camp, watch their closing program, and meet their counselors and friends.

And this weekend, I filled a new Garaywa role, that of the speaker and guest missionary.  My sweet friend Donna, a fellow MUW alum, asked me to be the speaker for her church's ladies retreat. 

It was a bit surreal to be walking the same cracked sidewalks, eating in the same cafeteria, and strolling under the same Spanish moss decked trees that filled my days in the past but now in this new position.

But something else hasn't changed even if I'm older, wiser, and not crying my eyes out due to homesickness. God hasn't changed.

He is still the same God that saw that pudgy, freckly, sick-at-her-stomach little girl that I was and loved me unconditionally. He saw all flaws and chose me anyway, desired to have me as His girl and use me for His Kingdom.

And now He sees this wrinkled, freckly, addicted-to-chocolate, middle-aged mama that I am and loves me unconditionally. He sees all my flaws and choses me anyway, desires to have me as His bride and use me for His Kingdom.

That's what He did this weekend. I didn't do it perfectly. I often lost my train of thought or stumbled for the right way to phrase something. My notes were messy and I possibly talked way too long and too much, but He knew that in advance and still planned for me to be the speaker anyway.

He's amazing that way.

He is good and all-knowing and never, ever messes up. He never stumbles for the right words or gets stressed out. He is totally capable of doing all that needs to be done on His own with nothing from us, but that's not how He works.

He chooses us, and all our imperfections, and let's us join with Him in the glorious plans He has to draw people to Him and give them the same new life that He has blessed us with.

That's one thing that never changes and for that, I am very, very grateful.

How blessed is God! And what a blessing he is! He’s the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in him. Long before he laid down earth’s foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!) He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son.

Because of the sacrifice of the Messiah, his blood poured out on the altar of the Cross, we’re a free people—free of penalties and punishments chalked up by all our misdeeds. And not just barely free, either. Abundantly free! He thought of everything, provided for everything we could possibly need, letting us in on the plans he took such delight in making. He set it all out before us in Christ, a long-range plan in which everything would be brought together and summed up in him, everything in deepest heaven, everything on planet earth.

It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone.

Ephesians 1:3-12

BIGGER THAN MY UGLY SINS

Oh Lord, help this sinner!

Here I am, preparing to speak to a ladies' group at a retreat this weekend and I'm letting sin wiggle it's way right into my spirit.

I'm desperately trying to prepare for the retreat. I've got some sermons online that I want to listen to, I've got some scripture passages I want to write down and take note of, I've got time with the Lord that I need to spend just praying. I really, really, REALLY want to spend the next couple of hours focused on God and what I'm going to share and instead, a kid needs help with math, another kid can't find the keys to the ministry shop, one of the little ones is doing a terrible job with tying his shoes, and another one is asking for graham crackers even though it is our daily "quiet time" for Pete's sake! And on top of all that, my husband asked me to give some food to a neighbor and actually minister to him! Minister to a neighbor??!?!?!?!? DOESN'T HE KNOW I AM TRYING TO PREPARE FOR MY TALK!????!????

Yeah.

Like I said, I'm a sinner.

Here I am, about to share some living bread of life with a group of women and I'm stressing out because I keep getting interrupted by my sweet, blessing family.

See, I'm stressed out for two reasons.

Okay, probably more than two but two that are obvious to me right now.

First, I'm just a selfish self-centered person. I want my "me" time and I want to be left alone. I've got two talks to prepare for. I've got a group of ladies who are coming and expecting something. And by heck, I want to do a good job and them to be impressed with how awesome I was.

There, I said it. I know it is ugly, but it is true. How the heck am I supposed to impress them with a good message if I have to actually minister to my in-need kids, husband, and neighbor???

Second, I do want what I say to be used by God to change their lives. Yes, I don't want to mess up and be boring but a big part of me, the part that is like Jesus, wants to give something to these women that will draw them closer to the Lord. I want them to hear tonight and tomorrow morning the words of God that will free them up to live the life GOD wants them to live. For some of them, they need to meet the Lord as a real person for the very first time. For others, they know him but they've let their relationship grow distant. And for some, they are really in love with Jesus but need something to happen so they can move to the next phase God has for them.

I want those things for them. And I don't want them not to get out of it what God wants them to get out of it because I wasn't properly prepared.

Sigh....

But see, it isn't about me. The only person I should really care about impressing is God and I know, because I do know Him, that He'd rather me take the time and patiently help my son with his shoe strings and sweetly share some food and pray with a neighbor than to spend hours and hours of prep time and have a perfectly smooth message that came at the cost of not loving those around me.

And I also know that God is bigger than me.

I forget that.

A lot.

I forget that He KNOWS I'm not perfect and He chooses to use me anyway. Heck, my friend Donna knows I'm not perfect and chose to ask me anyway. I can fool some people into thinking that I've got my act 100% together but I can't fool the Lord. He knows areas that need cleaning up that I'm not even aware of. Yet.

He knows that I'm not going to say everything right. He knows that I'm a busy mom with seven kids, a living and breathing husband, and a neighborhood full of folks who need prayer, food, clothes, and just someone to listen to them and show some interest in their lives.

But what is really, really cool is that not only does He choose to use me despite my flaws and sins and lack, but He is BIGGER THAN I AM. He is bigger than my failings. He is bigger than my mess-ups. He is bigger than my wrong thinking. He is bigger than my everything.

He is even bigger than my best.

What I have to cling to is that God loves these ladies more than I love these ladies. I don't even KNOW most of these ladies.

But He's known them before the foundations of the earth were layed. He knit them together in their mothers' wombs. He desires that none of them will perish but that all of them will have everlasting life through His son Jesus. He wants all of them to walk in His fullness and grace. He wants all of them to know that He is passionately in love with them and if they will just say "yes" to Him and His calling and ways, that He will give them a life better and more beautiful than they can ever imagine.

And just like He is using pitiful, little ole, irritated-easily me, to do amazing things for His Kingdom, He wants to use them, too.

He's not going to let me stop Him from speaking to those women. He's not going to let my imperfections hide His perfections. If they are wanting and open and listening, then He's going to make sure that they hear and see and experience what they need to hear and see and experience.

God is bigger than I am. God along is perfect. God alone can draw people to Him. God alone can save. God alone. God alone. God alone.

Yes, He wants to use me. And He wants to use you. And He will use us, even though we might not get that perfect, uninterrupted time that we wish we had.

God knows.

And God still chooses.

He chooses me.

He chooses you.

And He chooses those women at the retreat tonight.

And He tell them that He chooses them even if I have a bad hair day.

Dear Lord, please forgive me for being stupid enough to think it is all about me and my perfection. Please forgive me for resenting the precious family you have blessed me with. Lord, you know that my busy life means I don't get the time spent alone with you, locked away in preparation. You know that I am a sinner who gets more concerned about what I'm going to wear than pleasing You at times. Help me to always remember that You are ultimately who I want to please. Help me to remember that all my words are nothing if I don't have love, love for You and love for those You have put in my life. Please forgive me God for my sins. Thank you that You keep loving me anyway. Thank you that You keep using me anyway. And Lord, please speak through me tonight and tomorrow. Please give me Your words of life and grace and love and truth. Please open my ears to hear Your heart. Please open these women's ears to hear your voice. Please set us all free, Lord, from the lies we believe from the destroyer and the lies we tell ourselves. Help us Lord to fall deeper in love with You and to believe only what You want to speak to our loves. Thank You, Lord. I love you. Thank You for Jesus who died for me, not because I deserved it but just because You wanted me as yours.

A GIFT WE DIDN"T DESERVE

Twelve years ago, we had four children. Jim really thought we were done, I was kinda ready for another one or two or three, and God obviously was ready for us to have more as He surprised us with a gift we didn't deserve. On October 3, 2001, our beautiful Laura Grace was born. We gave her the middle name Grace because the word "grace" means unmerited favor. It is a gift undeserved. God had been teaching us in amazing ways just what that meant in our lives. Laura was a surprise blessing that God gave us not because we were worthy or even because we'd asked for another child, but just because He wanted to give us something very good, very precious, very priceless.

Today our girl turned eleven. We celebrated her milestone with pancakes and presents and candles. We watched Mr. Bean and Jim played Jenga with the younger three and Laura had less jobs to do. We celebrated how much we love her, and in celebrating her birthday and how much we love her, we were also celebrating God's goodness and His love.

Because Laura is symbol of God's lavish affection for His children.

All around me, I look and see evidence of the Father's love for us, His grace. So much of the goodness He has blessed me with is totally undeserved. I'm selfish and lazy and mean-spirited and self-righteous. But He still loves me and accepts me as His child anyway. He still sent Jesus to live and die and prepare the way for me to be made right with Him. While I was stil a sinner, He called me to Him, He made me His own.

That's what's so amazing about grace.

And that's why our blue-eyed Laura is also our Laura Grace. She is a living, breathing reminder of that crazy-good truth.

THIS IS MY MAN

This is my man and I am so proud of him. He takes care of his family, loves his wife (yay for me!), is loyal to his friends, works hard at any task given him, and is a faithful servant of the Lord. The past week and a half he's been working relentlessly on a troubled dam down in South Mississippi, a dam dangerously weakened by Hurricane Isaac. He's used all his training, knowledge, experience, and God-given wisdom in the process. He's worked day after day, and sometimes even around the clock, to do what is needed to help down-river homes from being destroyed.



Yeah, I'm kinda crazy about him.

Okay, a whole lot crazy about him.

Today, he'll be sharing about another kind of crisis. A spiritual one.

At the We Will Go Sunday afternoon worship service, he'll be sharing the story of how and why God has moved our family from our idyllic, peaceful, farm life to a house situated on a busy street corner in an inner-city neighborhood infamous for drugs, crime, intense poverty, gangs, and prostitution. And once again, I'm reminded of why he's my hero. Over the next 14 or so months of living here, Jim will be using all his training, knowledge, experience, and God-given wisdom to also help homes and lives from being destroyed. But this time, it won't be knowledge, skills, and wisdom related to breach analysis or water sheds, it will be those things God has taught him about living the life of a strong Christian man.

He's not perfect. He fails and falters. He doubts and gets dismayed.

But, he keeps on going.

He keeps on this path that the Lord has set before him despite the trials, despite the temptations, despite the hurts, despite it all.

Jim didn't grow up knowing the Lord. His life, as he describes it, was very "pagan". His choices had him on a path headed straight to death and destruction.

And then he met Jesus.

He truly became a new man. He was totally transformed. Even his mother commented once, after we'd been married a few years and had a couple of kids, that she didn't even recognize him because he was so completely changed. She was amazed at the kind of father and husband he was, knowing that he'd not grown up with good role models of either.

That's what he has to share today and in this season of life in Jackson.

Yes, his life before Jesus wasn't spent as an alcoholic homeless man caving in some abandoned crack house in an inner-city neighborhood. Neither was his life pre-Jesus spent as a drug lord with deadly authority over numerous drug dealers or a young run-away turned to prostitution out of desperation.

Yet, his sins were just as destructive, they just looked different. But they were all eating away at his soul and they were ultimately leading to death. They were keeping him far away from His Heavenly Father who had created him and wanted to bless him with a life more abundant than anything this world had to offer.

I praise God for transforming my husband's life 25 years ago. I met him when he was a brand new baby Christian. Though we didn't date til nearly three years later, as his friend, I had the blessing of watching him grab hold of this Jesus-way and going full force after a new and better way of living. I saw him quickly move from baby steps to giant leaps in the faith. He was hungry to know God and let God change every area of his life that wasn't in life with God's plan for him. He truly became a new creation.

The God that changed my husband from an arrogant yet deeply wounded, party-hard paratrooper is the same God that wants to transform addicts, prostitutes, gang bangers, drug lords, alcoholics, and dead-inside religious folks.

He's the same God that wants to transform me and you. No matter where we are on this spiritual journey, an enemy of God or someone who has loved him our whole life, He is powerful and able to keep turning our losses into wins, our defeats into victories, our struggles into strength, and our brokenness into beauty...if we'll only say "yes".

Today, my husband will stand before the group at We Will Go as an example of where saying "yes" to God over and over again can lead you. Not to someone who never fails, never doubts, never stumbles, but someone whose life is being used in beautiful and incredible ways for the kingdom.

Just like God wants to use you.

If you'd like to join us today at the We Will Go service and hear Jim share his story and our family's story, we'd love to see you! The service starts at 3:00 and lasts til around 4:45 or 5:00. After the service, you are welcome to stay for the fellowship meal. This is a chance to sit down with our neighbors plus our friends from area churches and just get to know each other. It is a beautiful opportunity to minister and be ministered to. The worship pavilion at We Will Go is located on the corner of North Congress and Barksdale. That's exactly one block north of Two Sisters restaurant and one block south of the Manship House. You'll see the signs on our ministry houses. For more information, you can visit our ministry website: 

http://www.wewillgo.org/main.html