April 19, 2024

Girls with Swords: Chapter 13 – “The Sword of Forgiveness” (pgs. 200-205)

June 19, 2013 by

Working as a hospice Bereavement Counselor, I have heard and seen stories like Lisa’s numerous times. These stories do not cease to touch my heart. But I have seen stories of forgiveness have two different outcomes as well.

There are two decisions that can be made in a situation such as the one depicted in this chapter.

1.  Forgive 
2.  Don’t forgive

As a Bereavement Counselor I have the opportunity to speak with some of the most interesting individuals I have ever met. Our patients have lived full lives, raised families, and created legacies. When working with our patients and their families all too often we are faced with issues of unforgiveness—either on the side of the patient or on the side of their family.  I have seen unforgiveness lead to children not visiting their parent as they die. I have seen unforgiveness breed words of hurt and hate; open wounds that were thought closed; and cause those wounds to go unhealed…opportunities gone.

I have also seen forgiveness build bridges, heal hearts, and create new beginnings and new opportunities. Relationships restored and mended. Forgiveness is a beautiful thing!  It is a beautiful gift that we are given by God to have relationships with others after our flesh and the world has tried to corrupt them.

Forgiveness is the remission of sins.
For it is by this that what has been lost,
and was found, is saved from being lost again.

–Augustine (pg.205)

Lisa questions how forgiveness impacted her father that night she went to go see him, she doesn’t know exactly what happened, what he was thinking? But, she did know that God moved that night. Her willingness to forgive, her willingness to pick up that sword and walk forward with God by her side made a difference in her father’s life. It made a difference in her life and it made a difference in the life of the social worker who cared for her dad. She didn’t know what forgiving her father would do but she knew that it was something that needed to be done.

We don’t know what events will follow after we choose to say ‘yes‘ to God, we don’t know what will happen after we pick up that sword of forgiveness and carry it with us on our journey. We don’t know what will happen after we forgive that mother, that father, the brother, sister, friend, whomever it may be. But what we do know is after we forgive, after we lay the issue at God’s feet and allow love to fill the space where the unforgiveness lived, that God will take over, He will fulfill the promises He made regarding those relationships before they were even formed.

Lisa’s forgiveness of her father and his actions was a gift—a gift to her father and a gift to herself. Like Lisa said in this section “God is faithful.”  We are to forgive, and He will handle the rest.

Forgiveness.jpg

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Let’s Pray:

Dear Heavenly Father,

Forgiveness is at times made to seem to sound so easy; but, Lord, You know that it can be hard. Lord, it takes faith and strength and trust in You.  Stories like Lisa’s are beautiful and heartwarming. Please touch the hearts and lives of the women here who are dealing with the issue of forgiveness.  Please soften our hearts and give us the strength to lay the pain at Your feet, the strength to pick up our sword of forgiveness and walk forward with You by our side.  In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.

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Girls With Swords: Chapter 5 Weekly Review – “The Cross as a Sword”

April 26, 2013 by

Click Here for Next Week’s Reading Schedule

 

Welcome to Campground USA

Log Cabins, Nature Trails, Canoes,

Paddle Boats, Bikes, Fishing

Yep, that’s the sign entering our campground where we gather around the bonfire nightly to discuss Girls With Swords by Lisa Bevere. 

How about that meeting we had last night discussing Chapter 4!  The Holy Spirit moved upon Christi, and it was as though fire came down from heaven as she spoke about taking back all that Satan has stolen from us. Didn’t we have a Hallelujah time dancing on top of the old devil’s head! 

And speaking of a fire within them—Jennifer, Teresa, Tonya, and Diane did as they answered the questions:  “Where is the Battle?” and “Who is my Enemy?”  

  • Jennifer put it to us straight!  Our war is not with each other; it is with Satan.
  • Teresa laid out God’s plan of Redemption: “One Heart, Vision, Purpose, Name, Kingdom, Mandate.  We could be the answer to Jesus’ prayer He prayed for us at The Last Supper by becoming ONE. 
  • Tonya reminded us that we must battle to become ONE, using the tools God has given us in Galatians 5:22-26. 
  • Diane told her testimony of how the thief had come to steal, kill, and destroy her. But, Jesus came to give abundant life, and she didn’t listen to the lies of the enemy.
  •  Praise and Worship ended the meeting with Heaven’s angelic choir joining in.

 I just gotta tell you about a childhood memory I had as I was walking back to my cabin after the meeting.  I began thinking about the cattle farm I grew up on in Georgia.  I loved watching Daddy’s herd of cattle grazing out in the field.  The old cows would fill their bellies full of hay and then lie down under the shade trees and wait until it was time to get up and graze some more.  It was as though they lived only “to be fed.”

A thought suddenly hit me as I recalled that memory, and I stopped and prayed: “Father God, help me not to just graze on the things I am learning.  May I feast upon your word, and really ‘get who I am in Christ.’ May I not lie down like Daddy’s old cows after feasting.  Instead, may I rise up and use my Sword as a weapon in my daily life.”

Well, the sun has gone down here at the campground.  It’s time to make my way on over to the bonfire.  Tonight we are discussing Chapter 5—“The Cross as a Sword.” 

Teresa pinpoints the Crossroads.

Lisa says: “Just as Adam stole the fruit of a forbidden tree and caused all within him to die, Jesus died on a barren tree and thus became its fruit that all in Him might live.”  

You and I are part of the fruit of Adam, and if we accept Jesus’ gift on the cross, we are His fruit as well. Because we are Adam’s fruit we have a sinful, hurtful part of us.  Many of you have been hurt.  Your hurt is holding you back from the freedom and abundant life Jesus Christ has to offer.  If you have buried secrets, living in shame and regret, you are at a crossroads. 

  • One path leads to…loneliness, embarrassment, shame, pride, just getting by. 
  • The other path leads somewhere new and scary, feels vulnerable and shakey.
  • It requires us to walk one step at a time lighted by faith, trust, hope, and love.
  • But,it binds us to other travelers who are ready and willing to share their life story.

“As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another” (Proverbs 27:17).

Could we get together, talk, and share our stories?

Jennifer spoke on Transformation.

Isaiah and David prophesied that God’s chosen people would kill His only Son. The religious leaders thought that by killing God’s Son they would get to steal His inheritance.  “None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified The Lord of glory” (1 Corinthians 2:8). 

Lisa asks the question:  “What blindsided each and every ruler of that age? They could not see the transforming power of The Cross.”

What about you?

  • Do you see the transforming power of The Cross?
  • Do you live a transformed life?
  • Do you live fully believing that Christ died for you?
  • It is one thing to know about The Cross and what happened that day on Calvary.
  • Do you live in a way that your life represents this knowledge?

We were saved, forgiven, healed, loved, graced, empowered, and restored “in Christ” at the Cross.  It was the dead tree that brought us all back to life. 

You were already transformed because of the Cross.

The question is – Have you accepted it? Are you living it?

Tonya spoke on the power of The Cross.

“But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity” (Ephesians 2:13-16).

Lisa said:  “On the cross God leveraged all that He was for all that we could be.”

  • Jesus died on the Cross, so that we could one day fulfill our potential.
  • The Cross brings us together.
  • The Cross lifts us up above any attack used against us.
  • Christ created the bridge needed between our neighbors and ourselves, between races, between genders, between ages, between classes.

The Cross has the power to unify all who are willing to embrace it.

In Christ the far-off and the wandering come near.

Diane spoke on the Scapegoat.

Everyone’s journey to The Cross is different.  We can all relate with the scapegoat in different areas as we journey to The Cross.   

Guilt     Lonely nights     Oppression     Rejection

Jesus knows the pain and the hurt behind each and every word used to describe what a scapegoat represented.  Yet, this pain was all taken with Jesus on the Cross as He became the ultimate sacrifice. Lisa is right:  The Cross is a Sword of Love.

“Yet it was our weakness He carried; it was our sorrows that weighed Him down.  And we thought His troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for His own sins!  But He was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins.  He was beaten so we could be whole.  He was whipped so we could be healed.  All of us, like sheep, have strayed away.  We have left God’s paths to follow our own.  Yet the Lord laid on Him the sins of us all” (Isaiah 53:4-6).

“Ladies, we must pick up His Sword and follow Jesus to Heaven!”

After Diane spoke, many women shared their painful past as Teresa had suggested.  Suddenly, a woman spoke out boldly:  “Let’s lay hands on these women that God would restore the years that the locusts and canker worm has eaten up!”

This lady has “got it.”

She knows who she is in Christ and is applying the Sword to the hurting.

Praise and Worship followed with old hymns of the church flowing throughout the campground: Near the Cross, At the Cross to name a couple.  

The smell of s’mores roasting nearby filled the air, and what’s that other smell I smell?  Could it be the aroma of Christ?  (Ah, how sweet it is!)

Let’s Pray:  Father God, may we become a living testimony of who we are in Jesus and know that, because of the Cross, You have equipped us to walk in You and defeat anything the enemy might throw at us.  In Jesus’ name, I pray.  Amen.

*****

If you would like to join us for the “Girls with Swords” Online Bible/Book study, click HERE to be taken to our sign-up page.  Once you complete the enrollment process, we will email you further details.  We hope you will join us!

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Girls With Swords: Chapter 5 – “The Croise” (pgs 72-76)

April 24, 2013 by

I don’t like math.  I don’t understand it, and whoever invented the calculator is an awesome person.  But I do understand the equation Lisa gave in this chapter.  I understand what it meant for me, what it means for my children, and what it means for all of us.

Moment = Force x Vertical Distance

I can picture standing there…watching His hands being nailed to the Cross; that moment meant so much more than an arm being stretched across a piece of wood, “in a moment the Cross spanned the unfathomable distance between God and humanity, and overcame every force of hostility.” Every person, place or thing that may stand in our way from becoming who He created us to be was taken care of that day; that’s what that equation means to me. It means that nothing placed in my path will stop what God has planned for me.

Ephesians 2:13-16

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation,having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity.

on the Cross

Jesus died on the Cross, so we could be the person He created us to be.  God gave His only Son so that we could one day fulfill our potential.

The Cross, out of all the symbols out there, is one that most people recognize.  We were driving to school the other day and my 4 year old little boy said “Mom, I know why there are so many crosses around the church.”  I asked why and he responded by saying “It’s because Jesus died on the cross.”  From this to an elderly gentleman, kneeling in front of a cross in the hospital chapel, praying for his sick wife…to images of the Cross appearing everywhere when tragedy strikes, the Cross spans the distance. This image is a source of comfort, a defense in our times of trouble, a reassurance that everything will be ok in the end.

The name of Jesus is one lever that lifts the world

– Author Unknown

The Cross, and what Christ did for us, brings us together.  The Cross, and what Christ did for us, lifts us up above any attack used against us.  Christ created the bridge needed between our neighbors and ourselves, between races, between genders, between ages, between classes.

“The cross has the power to unify all who are willing to embrace it. In Christ the far off and wandering come near.”

Let’s Pray:

Dear Heavenly Father, thank You for Your Cross!  Help us to remember what Your Cross means to us. Your Cross rid us of any hostility that may stand in our way. Your Cross has power that we cannot always see but, standing on Your word, we will walk in faith with our swords held high, knowing that Your Cross, and what Christ did for us on that Cross ensured that we will walk in our full potential.  In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen!

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