Why JOY?

My middle name is joy, really! Christine Joy that is. It means “one who follows Christ is joyful. There have been many times in life that I didn’t feel joyful in the least, but, I overcame it. I received a gift that changed my entire life and person!

When I was around fourteen years old I looked up the definition of joy in an old dictionary. It read Joy /joi/ noun Happiness from overcoming or happiness after a victory. That sooooo intrigued me. My parents had been divorced for a few years and I had a seriously broken heart from the division of our home. I needed to feel that joy again, desperately!

That day, after reading the definition of my middle name, I gathered my markers and a ruler and some notebook paper and began creating. I sketched large letters J-O-Y on a piece of paper. Then in smaller letters, I wrote the definition. I colored a tiny checkerboard pattern all over the JOY and outlined everything in black. Then I carefully colored in each box of the pattern with a different colored marker. It was a beautiful masterpiece! I didn’t stop there, though, I made three more pictures similar to that one. Each with a different style of writing, different patterns, and different colors. The next day I did the same thing and that week I filled my bedroom wall with the definition of JOY.

It’s interesting looking back to that week. It seems like a simple experience that any person might have. But, my life was getting ready to take a turn for the worse and over the next twenty years, my life was filled will extreme amounts of traumas and stresses, but…………….every single trouble that came lead to MIGHTY VICTORIES and MIRACLES and JOY!

This blog is about my life’s stories, and victories through the gift I received. It’s about the everyday life joys and the mountain moving joys that come suddenly. It’s about having VICTORY and JOY in our everyday lives, our relationships, our parenting, our teaching, our work, in trials, in sickness, in losses, in unforgiveness, and in abandonment. Sometimes in the simplicity.

Prepare yourself for JOY – VICTORY is at hand!

Sonrise

I’ve always enjoyed seeing the sunrise in the morning! Watching the sky and waiting for the ribbon of light stretch out and expand across the trees and hills. It’s a constant reminder to me that light is always there.

My life has had many, many times of darkness, but just as faithful as the sun rising in the east is the faithfulness of God in our lives to bring the darkness to light!

John 8:12 says Yeshua spoke to them again: “ I am the light of the world; whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light which gives life”

When Jesus died on the cross bearing our sins darkness fell on the land (Mark 15:33). It was a very dark and difficult time for all humanity when Jesus died. It was for us that God sent Jesus that through him we might have life (1 John 4:9). So, because of our sins he was crucified. We deserved the punishment ourselves (Isaiah 53:8). The works of the enemy manifesting sin in the lives of humanity was the reason he died for us. So, darkness fell over the land just as darkness falls over our lives through trials and heartache from sin.

But, Just before a beautiful sunrise a light appears in the eastern sky. 1 John 3:8 The person who keeps on sinning is from the Adversary, because from the very beginning the Adversary has kept on sinning. It was for this very reason that the Son of God appeared, to destroy these doings of the Adversary. You see when Jesus died he put to death our sinful nature that separated us from God, it separated us from light keeping us in darkness. Hebrews 9:14 says…how much more the blood of the Messiah, who, through the eternal Spirit, offered himself to God as a sacrifice without blemish, will purify our conscience from works that lead to death, so that we can serve the living God.

When Jesus died he did not stay in the grave. He rose from the dead! Matthew 28:6 He is not here, because he has been raised-just as he said! Come and look at the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell the talmidium, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and now he is going to Galil ahead of you. You will see him there’ Now I have told you.”

His spirit gives us the life that brings light!

Galatians 4:6-7 Now because you are sons, God has sent forth into our hearts the Spirit of his Son, the Spirit who cries out, “Abba!” (that is, “Dear Father!”) So through God you are no longer a slave but a son, and if you are a son you are also an heir.

We have been given the very resurrected spirit of Jesus himself! Remember that as in the passage above, through the Spirit that was given to us we can serve the living God and no longer be separated from him, but,, now we are able to follow Him and will not walk in darkness but will have light which gives life! Jesus is the light! Just as light stretches across the sky and those beams of light touch everything bringing daylight everywhere so is the light of Jesus in our lives. As we submit to the will of God and put to death sin in our lives we will see those dark areas of life come to the light. When we serve God we don’t walk in the darkness of separation, but in the light of oneness with him.

We can’t continue to do the things we know are wrong but must willfully submit our will to God’s will.

John 6:40 Yes, this is the will of my Father: that all who see the Son and trust in him should have eternal life, and that I should raise them up on the Last Day.” That day is coming soon! Romans 10:9-10, 13 ..if you acknowledge publicly with your mouth that Yeshua is Lord and trust in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be delivered. For with the heart one goes on trusting and thus continues toward deliverance. Since everyone who calls on the name of Adonai will be delivered. This infallible promise from the scriptures means that if you are trusting that God raised Jesus from the dead and confess this with your mouth then you are going to be delivered from hell, which is the consequence of sin. It’s because of Jesus that we can live in obedience to God and serve him. Through the Spirit we can walk in the light of life in Jesus and live free forever!

Romans 6:23 For what one earns from sin is death; but eternal life is what one receives as a free gift from God, in union with the Messiah Yeshua, our Lord.

Have you really received the free gift of eternal life? What do you believe? Do you trust in Jesus? Do you believe that God raised Jesus from the dead? Have you confessed this with your mouth? Have you told someone or do you tell people what you believe? If your answers are yes, then you are SAVED! you have eternal life right now!

There is so much that we have because of what Jesus did for us! In the scriptures and by knowing him we find these truths! I’m excited to share with you that the Son has risen in your life and you are in the light in Jesus through the Spirit of God! You are free from sin, sickness and darkness!

To start, read these verses to know what you ALREADY have! The entire word is truth!

Isaiah chapter 53

Romans chapter 8

1 Corinthians chapter 2

Ephesians chapters 1,2 and 3

Aurora the first sign of light

When I was nineteen I became pregnant with my first child. I was still mentally a child myself. I had not grown up like most teenagers with sound instruction and support. I had no idea how to really care for myself, let alone a child of my own. But, the very moment I read the positive pregnancy test I fell in love with my baby.

It was difficult to wrap my mind around what being a mom would look like. I knew that the child was completely reliant on me to take good care of them. I knew they needed love, care, and stability. Things I had a serious deficit in. I had experienced my parents’ divorce, teen rapes, and parental abandonment. I was full of hate, anger, and unforgiveness. I lacked the skills needed for the journey and my family and friends were worried about the child because of my lack. But, the desperation of my situation made me turn to God for help.

My belly grew more and more every month from the tiny life that was now moving inside of me. The doctor confirmed that I was expecting a baby girl and I was thrilled!

Over the next several weeks I pondered what kind of example I would be to her. I desperately wanted her to be a better woman than I was. I started to realize that I had to become the kind of woman that would be an example of true womanhood. I was so far from that, but, I was determined to get there!

I had been through a lot of trauma and even though I had received help from God, I needed to be very sure that he was real. I cried out to him one night and asked him to show me if he was real. Within a moment a powerful peace and realization of the existence of God came inside of me. From that moment on no one would ever be able to convince me otherwise! I said, “Take my life, Lord, and change me, make me new!” And that is exactly what he did! The first thing I did was give up my music. I listened to many different types of music, but, most of it was about sex, drugs, drinking, and hate. I knew within me it had to go and acted on that knowing. I later learned in the scripture Romans 12:2 says Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is his good, pleasing and perfect will. The renewing of my mind was necessary for change.

I chose the name Aurora for my baby girl, which means dawn or the first sign of light before sunrise. I prayed every day for me and for her and for everyone I knew would be in our lives. I believed that God was real and knew I was changing. At 12:00am on November 11th, 1999 I had my first contraction. The labor and delivery went so well and Aurora was born at 6:36am. I was so in awe of her! All of my thoughts and heart shifted to her and the experience changed me even more.

As she grew up I continued to change, but, I had so much to sort through and life was extremely difficult learning to make better choices. We had a lot of heartaches that turned into so many, many victories.

She is now eighteen and the most beautiful woman I know inside and out! She has always excelled in school and has been an amazing big sister of three younger siblings. She has always been helpful and kind-hearted and compassionate. She has loved her enemies and prayed for them diligently. She is the model woman of God. I am so honored to have the pleasure of being her mother! She has become the woman that I hoped she would be and so much more!

This year she graduated and I have taken time to reflect on her life and earlier this year I reminisced about her birth. I sat with Aurora recalling that time. I remembered right after I gave birth to her the nurses took her to the nursery with her dad to weigh and measure her. I sat alone and lay my head back on the pillow in my hospital bed. I turned my head to look outside the window and saw a beautiful peachy-pink and lavender sunrise welcoming Aurora into the world and me into my new life as her mother. My little Aurora was born at dawn, just like the meaning of her name. While reminiscing, we looked up the definition of Dawn. There were many definitions, One read Dawn-: to begin to grow light as the sun rises: to begin to appear or develop: to begin to be perceived or understood. But one stood out to me, it read Dawn-: Two minutes before sunrise. I quickly looked up what time the sunrise actually happened on November 11th, 1999 in St. Louis, Missouri and the time was 6:38am. Aurora, which means dawn or “first sign of light before sunrise”, was born at 6:36am exactly two minutes before sunrise- at dawn. She was indefinitely my first sign of light before sunrise and the dawning of a new life for me. When she was sent to me, God was starting something new for me and the generations to come! New beginnings! What a year of celebration this has been! I feel such JOY over the VICTORY of accomplishment in her life!

Now that she is an adult and we are planning college we share a beautiful relationship! She and I walk together every evening sharing stories and encouraging one another.

In Aurora, I have witnessed the true love of a believing woman and how to forgive and to love your enemies. I have seen her compassion and care for her siblings and me and her stand for what is true and right in our family and with peers. As I reflect on her new season of life I recognize how God has cleaned me up and made me the woman that she needed to set her on mountain peaks of grace and triumph. God always has mighty plans for us! If we are willing to believe the truth and walk with him in obedience we walk in freedom!

God gave his son Jesus as a sacrifice that paid for the darkness and sin in our lives. The bible says in 1 John 3:8 The person who keeps on sinning is from the Adversary, because from the very beginning the Adversary has kept on sinning. It was for this very reason that the Son of God appeared, to destroy those doings of the Adversary. That sin that we commit is what separates us from God and the blessings of life from him. The Adversary is the cause, but, his doings have been destroyed according to that verse. God doesn’t want us to have a rift in our relationship. He loves us and wants us to know Him and be known by Him. That’s why God sent Jesus! He loves us so much that he made a way, the only way, back into relationship with our loving heavenly Father. Jesus had no sin at all, so he was the perfect sacrifice for our sins. 2 Corinthians 5:21 God made this sinless man to be a sin offering on our behalf, so that in union with him we might fully share in God’s righteousness. By believing that Jesus was sent by God for this reason we accept, receive and are in union with Him as Lord. When we receive Him we are receiving EVERYTHING that he is. We are receiving a changed heart and life. CJB Isaiah 53:5 says But he was wounded because of our crimes, crushed because of our sins; the disciplining that makes us WHOLE fell on him, and by his bruises(Or: and in fellowship with him) we are healed. God provided Jesus and made YOU WHOLE!!! Your spirit, your soul, your body, your mind, your relationships, your finances, EVERYTHING has been made WHOLE through Christ!!!

We can receive wholeness by believing and accepting what God has done! It is the simplicity of the gospel. God sent Jesus, who gave his life, which made us whole!!

2 Peter 1:3 God’s power has given us everything we need for life and godliness, through our knowing the One who called us to his own glory and goodness. By these he has given us valuable and superlatively great promises, so that through them you might come to share in God’s nature and escape the corruption which evil desires have brought into the world. 

Romans 3:22-24- and it is the righteousness that comes from God, through the faithfulness of Yeshua the Messiah, to all who continue trusting. For it makes no difference whether one is a Jew or a Gentile, for all have sinned and fallen short of God’s praise.

Hallelujah!!! When I prayed for God to change me, he had already provided the way for change. Because of the free gift that I accepted by believing in my heart, of Jesus, that was given by my heavenly Father God, I became new and set out a new course of VICTORY and JOY for me and my family!

Now is your chance for you to choose the same and be free and made new!