Monday, June 30, 2008

walking through pain with beauty

9:34 AM by Christi Bowman

I am towards the end of this healing process that I wrote about in the last post. I had layers and layers of brokenness that Jesus had to peal through. He started by exposing the sin I had committed, my outward sin. Sin, that a lot of well meaning church people would cower before. He did it in a pretty public way, and He had me as a willing participant. It is dangerous to walk away from someone with exposed sin. Where ever there is exposed sin God is at work. We, as the body of Christ should never turn our backs on a person with exposed sin. It is at that very time that we are called to be healing agents. Jesus's hands and feet. Right now I can't help but think of Africa. Right now it's sins are being laid bare...exposed for all to see...the whole world to see. Seth Barnes writes about sin's consequences in Africa on his latest blog. God is at work in Africa. He is bringing things into the light. We can not cower. We have to love the people in Africa in the same way that Kevin, and Suzie, and Chris, and Patsy, and John, and Angela, Molly and Rob, and Edna and Bill, and Larry (AIM) have loved me.

Once God worked on my sin, and freed me from it, He began the process of working on the sin committed against me. This has been hard and beautiful at the same time...and it started last Wed night when a counselor from AIM, Larry, called to talk about some test results. That night will go down in history as one of the most amazing nights of my life (sorry Kevin). Since that night, almost a week ago, God has brought me to some amazing places. He has walked me through some pretty painful places but He has walked me through them, and His presence has made them beautiful. I love Jesus with every ounce of my being. What He can do for a person is indescribable.

God has let me know that He has one more thing to walk me through...and that is bringing the sin against me to light...and like the sins I committed, He is using me to do it. I am asking for your prayers as I do this one last thing...and once it is over I will do no less than I have done in the past. I will allow you to walk my journey with me. I am doing this because I believe that there are SO many people hurting and being hurt. They don't know how to face their demons, and because of that they are enslaved. They don't understand that God has to heal them from the things they cling too before He can bring them through the pain that caused them to cling in the first place. You have to feel pain there is no other way around it...but Jesus walks you through the pain. He redeems it and makes it beautiful. I am living in the wide open spaces of freedom that Paul talks about...and it is a beautiful place. I want to show others like me that it is possible for them too. With Jesus, life doesn't have to be a struggle.

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