Fairy Tales & Happy Endings

All together now:
And they lived happily ever after... sigh...the words of our youth.

Recently it has been in my head, "What if they don't live happily ever after?"  This is not because I am having marriage issues. This is very different from that.  The question comes from the idea that God initially intended for us to live happily ever after, WITH HIM!  When man was created it was to be in relationship with God. Then the fall of man occured and now we live in a world where the fairy tale will never happen.  I know people that seem to have the fairy tale.  They met and married the love of their life early on, they had the big fairy tale wedding, they have the house, the money, the jobs, the perfect kids dressed in perfect clothes.  Guess what?  This life is not perfect.  Their husband still farts, I promise!  Their kids throw fits, they feel like the worst mom ever some days. AND they do not have that perfect Garden of Eve relationship with God.  So why do we put ourselves through this pressure, the pressure of the perfect fairy tale life. The husband that walks through the door with flowers.  The children that play quietly while we fix dinner.  The friends that call when they are supposed to tell us how great of a mom we are!  In some cases our fairy tale would be to actually find a husband, or to be able to have children, or to not loose our child to an illness, or to have our husband choose to be faithful to us.  Everyone's fairy tale image is different.  Ladies, fairy tale by definition is imaginary!  Did you know that the acutal definition of fairy tale is: something of folklore, an imiginary story.  We pretty much set ourselves and our daughters up for failure when we make them think that a prince is going to ride up on a horse and save them from their terrible life!  UNLESS, that Prince just happens to be Jesus...stay with me on this.

Read Revelations 19:11-21 with me:

The Heavenly Warrior Defeats the Beast

¹¹ I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and wages war. ¹² His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. ¹³ He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. ¹⁴ The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. ¹⁵ Coming out of his mouth is a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. “He will rule them with an iron scepter.”^[a] He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. ¹⁶ On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written:

king of kings and lord of lords.

¹⁷ And I saw an angel standing in the sun, who cried in a loud voice to all the birds flying in midair, “Come, gather together for the great supper of God, ¹⁸ so that you may eat the flesh of kings, generals, and the mighty, of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, great and small.”

¹⁹ Then I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to wage war against the rider on the horse and his army. ²⁰ But the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who had performed the signs on its behalf. With these signs he had deluded those who had received the mark of the beast and worshiped its image. The two of them were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur. ²¹ The rest were killed with the sword coming out of the mouth of the rider on the horse, and all the birds gorged themselves on their flesh.

You see what I'm saying here friends.  There is a Prince, actually A KING, who came to save you once from certain death and will be back again to finish it off.  This world is full of sorrow, cheating, suffering, saddness, frustration, hurt feelings, naughty kids, burned dinners, work failures, toils and more and more till the day we die. This is hell on earth.  We are not meant to be comfortable here.  We are meant to be followers of God, to serve him in the best ways that we can, to glorify him and sing songs to him through all this mess.  Then, someday, he will come down, defeat the bad guys, send them to hell and we will ride with him! The God of Angel Armies!  (AWESOME!)

That sisters, is my new fairy tale.  The goal, to be in perfect relationship with God. To sing his praises all day every day. For now, I will seek joy through this day that will be filled with troubles.  To read his word so that I can share the good news with everyone I can and so that I can survive this non-fairy tale life that I live.  Fairy tales, don't happen, but Jesus saves. Everyday he saves.  If you want to know more about how you can build a relationship with Christ, please email me. I would love to talk to you more about this.

Until next time sweet friends I want you to remember that you are a Princess to the King.  You are Beautifully and Wonderfully Made by God who loves you and will return to defeat your enemy and take you home to be with him!

Much Love,
Chrystan

Take Up Your Sword!

What an amazing week I had last week!  It couldn't have been anymore of a roller coaster if it was the Mamba at Worlds of Fun.  Filled will highs and lows.  My hubby was out of town, LOW.  My professional world signed a big deal, HIGH!  Thus the week went on like that.  One of the low times is what has been on my mind. I can't go into true detail about what is going on, as it is a personal and soon to be legal issue.  Adam and I have been on a path over the last year, at least, where the road is marked with heart issues, wounds both new and old and persecution.  Over the last 4 months we have actively been persecuted by this person and also persecuted by people on the path that we felt like should be our advocates in this. Now, I know you are saying this is hard to follow without details, but there's a bigger issue here.

  Persecution is not something that we Americans, especially here in the Midwest area, are used to dealing with.  We are the Bible belt here, who would ever be against us?  Defined; to Persecute is to have ill will or hostility towards another because of their religious or political beliefs or race. To pursue, torment, pester or harass.  Now doesn't that sound pleasant?  In other countries persecution takes on a whole other form.  Where people are stoned, shot, beaten, abused, ridiculed publicly, rejected and even stripped of their family name and rights.  The form of persecution that we are experiencing in our situation is an aggressive verbal attack on our faith.  This does not hurt us physically but it has taken a toll emotionally.  To hear someone say horrible things about your faith is a pain that is only known on the inside. It creates doubt, which is a flesh eating disease of the spiritual nature.  A seed of doubt can grow faith chocking ivy in only a matter of minutes.  Ideas like "Am I a bad Christian?"  "Am I interpreting the Bible wrong?"  "Maybe I am just making this up and this isn't really how I am supposed to respond to this" AND on AND on.  This seed of doubt is so dangerous and that is what persecution can bring, and I believe that is a great purpose for Satan to use persecution for.  To make you cave, to create doubt, doubt in your faith and doubt in yourself.  Most dangerous of all, doubt in God.  What does the Bible say to help us understand more the topic of persecution?

The book of James says:
James 2:2-4 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish it's work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

Jesus Says:
John 15

The Hatred of the World

¹⁸ “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. ¹⁹ If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. ²⁰ Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. ²¹ But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me. ²² If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin,^[c] but now they have no excuse for their sin. ²³ Whoever hates me hates my Father also. ²⁴ If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. ²⁵ But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: ‘They hated me without a cause.’

²⁶ “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. ²⁷ And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.

So, what does this tell us?  PROCEED!  Go forward.  Take up your sword and shield and follow hard after Him!  Through these experiences I have never felt so strongly that the world was against us.  That I am not of this world. That I had to put on my armour, take up my sword, and seek and follow my Lord.  The Lord God over all.  Who was persecuted, threatened, spit upon, cursed at, beaten, nailed to a cross and killed by his persecutors.  With me, standing in the crowd, shouting crucify him.  He was persecuted for me, died for my sin.  And now, the world who hated him will hate me.  For when I stand for my faith, the world has a mirror that shows them their sin and that causes hate. 

So my sweet friends, are you being challenged in your faith?  Maybe not actively persecuted, but challenged? If you are not being challenged are you playing it too safe?  Are you not going out of your comfort zone to proclaim the name of Christ and challenge yourself and those around you to do the same?  I encourage you this week to stand strongly and firmly up for your God.  To follow hard after Him and seek his will for you. No matter what road that may take you down, follow Him because he will lead you to paradise!

Much Love,
Chrystan