1-2--3 Victory!

My last post centered around the fact I had recently dropped my Zoloft in favor of eliminating a potential flaw in my witness for Christ, but turns out, I'm NUTS without my daily 100mg, so much to my husband and Lili's relief I am once again properly medicated! I have to qualify that I was not sad or depressed and my joy was in no way compromised off my anti-depressant, although, I was crying tears of nearly every emotion one can list while giggling uncontrolably, so I am quite pleased to be experiencing the normalizing effect of my nightly tablet these days! No joke, last Sunday the sermon brought home God's faithfulness to me as if I were living it in that moment, and my joy was so pure and complete that, as they say, "my cup runneth over" along with my eyes and nose to the extent that I am quite confident that the woman behind me who offered to pray for me along with my husband must have been convinced that I was being convicted of some terrible secret sin which amused me and brought on rolls of loud sob-like guffaws of laughter,mind you, all right in the middle of church service. It wasn't long after this event that I decided to go back on my meds as soon as possible! I was hoping to share the video of that sermon along with this blog post but was unable to figure out how to, so if you would like to view it, go to crossroadschristian.com where it can be viewed under Chapter 7 of THE STORY sermon series.
Since I cannot share the video as I had hoped, I will instead share the excerpts that touched my heart along with a few tidbits that impressed me as I wrote, prepared and taught the accompanying upper elementary lesson covering the same content. Our minister drew three aspects of divine warfare that can still be effectively utilized in our lives today as we face spiritual battles of all kinds from the story of the Israelites entering the promised land (1) being a people (or a person) of the word, (2) being a people(or a person) of prayer, and (3) being a people (or a person) who identifies with God formerly through circumcision but currently through baptism. Why did this move me so? Well, because my life is a testament to the absolute truth held in these bits of wisdom from the Bible, and that just spoke to my heart of God's complete and total awesomeness! I've spent the greater part of my adult life clearly identified with God through Jesus Christ in baptism and deeply entrenched in the word allowing God to go before me in my life decisions through prayer just as the Israelites carried the Ark of the Covenant before their procession, and being the same today as he was then, never-changing, my God, the God of the Isaaelites, the one true God has led me into victory despite what should have been defeating odds just like he did for the Israelites. Since I'm on my Zoloft tonight, I can write this tear-free although my heart still swells with overwhelming love for my God and King! What I want you to know from the top of your head to the tip of your big toe is that God SO wants to lead you in victory also! I'm nothing special nor have I been good enough to deserve it or anything else (neither were the Israelites)....God just loves us and wants to do this for us if we'll allow him to, so if you are feeling defeated in life, claim victory through Jesus with the three aspects of divine warfare I mentioned earlier:) One other tidbit that impacted me from this story was a detail that was emphasized in the upper elementary large group lessom for which I can take no credit. Evidentally, the Israelites had to cross a river to enter Canaan, and once afain God parted the waters for them to walk across on dry land. I guess the Israelites gathered stones from the dry river bed before the water returned to its place and made a monument of remembrance with them....I have such a monument on the bathroom counter between the two sinks sit a faith plaque my family physician gave me along with a few Willow tree angel figurines each with a special meaning, and a clinging cross all which were given to me when God was helping me cross safely through a rough patch in my life on the road to victory. Eaxh item is a stone I gathered and now display to remind me each day of how I have arrived on the opposite side of that tradgedy victorious....I share this because I believe remembrance is key to growth iin our relationship with God. I fear that if we fail to actively remember that instead of moving forward, we will slip back.