The Great Water Source

The season of weddings is upon us.  I love weddings, LOVE THEM!  In my life I have had the great opportunity to be in many weddings.  My life is at an interesting place right now, as my younger siblings are beginning to get married and on the flip side I have people in my life now getting divorced.  So I see two ends of the spectrum.  And here I stand, 4 years into my own marriage thinking how do we go from Hero to Zero so quickly?  How do we go from marital bliss, honeymoon love to hate, resentment and the breaking of the vows we said with so much passion and love.  What will set my marriage apart, what advice can I give these people that mean so much to me as some begin their marriage and others begin to end theirs?  You see a marriage relationship is at times the hardest relationship we have.  It's almost unnatural to be selfless like that, to give without receiving, to love unconditionally, to fill someone up when you have nothing left.  What is the answer here? 


There is no surprise to my regular readers when I say Jesus.  Jesus is the answer.  You see when you put Jesus as the head of your life.  When you exalt him above all else, he then gets to pour over into.  Jesus is the great water source.  When he is above he then pours into us and it is so abundant that it overflows into those around us. So, when we run out of love, and grace and hope and forgiveness he is there, pouring into us.  Filling us up with those things that we lack.  Our relationship with Christ is the greatest marriage, we are his beautiful Bride. As we walk down the aisle to him he is sobbing at our beauty because he's never seen anything more amazing then when we choose to walk with him.  There is nothing that we can bring here, there's no way to earn his love, because he has already earned it for us.  The ultimate love story is the story of the walk up a hill to the cross where the greatest sacrifice was paid.  Where we were redeemed.  When I run out of hope, grace, love, and forgiveness in my marriage all I need to do is go to the source of all these things and all I need will be added.  That is how relationships survive and flourish abundantly.  You may be reading this at the beginning of this journey and so to you I say take the step down the aisle knowing that this covenant is unbreakable.  That the covenant you are making before God, each other and your family is forever. Not forever until you run out of love, hope, grace and forgiveness but forever until you die.  Know that when you are human, when you make mistakes and when you fall short that you will go to the source of great love and he will fill you up. So that then you can overflow to your partner and those around you.  If you are reading this and you are at the end of your marriage, where you have run out of hope, grace, love and forgiveness. When you can no longer trust, know this; there is healing in Jesus.  Just as he can save you he can save your marriage too.  It doesn't matter how far gone you or your spouse are.  Put him above all and all else will be added, he says that to us here in:






Matthew 6:33
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.






To those of us who are married, have kids and are in the daily cycle of life continue to remember your vows.  Continue to look to the Lord to fill you up so that you can overflow that to your spouse and your family.  Let us be the generation that ends the cycle of divorce.  How can we support each other in this?  I have a group of ladies that hold me accountable for my marriage. We check in with each other weekly to make sure that we are overflowing to our husbands what they need and that we are being poured into.  Please find some accountability in your circle of friends, or let me know this is a need for you and I would be happy to serve in this capacity.


If are not married, continue to put the Lord above all else. He is refining you for the plans he has in you, he is pouring into you what you need.  Seek solace in his embrace and he will fill you up with his everlasting love.






Friends, there is no perfection in my words. I fail epically in many avenues of what I just mentioned. We not perfect alone, I need this grace, hope, love and forgiveness just as you do.  Let's commit together to hold each other accountable for these things. If you have not made the decision to follow the Lord, it will be the best and most important decision you can make. Go to the water source and you will never thirst again. You are FEARFULLY BEAUTIFULLY AND WONDERFULLY MADE by a creator who loves you more than a groom loves his bride.




This song says it all:
The Well




Much Love,
Chrystan

Comfortable

My house was plagued last Friday by the infamous tummy bug. It seems to be spreading like wild-fire across the nation, unfortunately it made it's way through my house painfully.  I spent 2 days completely uncomfortable and BLAH, no thank you to whoever let that ugly bug into our house.  I happily sent it on it's way.  Being sick is awful, but being sick at the same time as your husband- unbearable (that's a whole other blog that leads to repentance for the not nice thoughts I have).  Anyways, I hate being uncomfortable.  I was just laying in my bed, which is supposed to be comfy and snuggly, writhing and moaning in pain.  My stomach hurts just thinking about it.  So imagine my surprise today sitting in my COMFY pew, in my cute little COMFY church, with all my COMFY friendly faces when I found myself complete, UNCOMFORTABLE.  Now before you start thinking I had another bought of the you know what's and had to RUN out of the sanctuary, let's not get ahead of ourselves.  You see we had a substitute preacher, which in Baptist world is a SCARY thing.  We are COMFORTABLE with our Pastor thank you, no desire for a stand in.  We are used to the rhythm and methodology of Pastor Michael, no need to throw something new at us thanks!  As luck would have it Pastor was out of town so stand in Pastor was at the pulpit this lovely May morning.  He covered a verse I was COMFORTABLE with. John 3:16.  Yep, all us Christians we are already reciting that in our heads aren't we.


John 3:16
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.


We know it by heart don't we.  If you've been in church as much as I have you know that verse like you know your own name.  So you are wondering how could that ever make you uncomfortable.  Well, here's how.  I basically had a Jesus panic attack all over my COMFORTABLE Christian life.  If this verse is true, if what Pastor Alan said is true,  then I've got some work to do. And that my friends is the TRUTH.  Pastor Alan said God Loved the whole world, Pastor Alan said he gave it ALL, Pastor Alan said that if someone doesn't believe in him they have a fiery eternity ahead of them. WAIT what???  I held my breath and my tears and Pastor Alan recounted 2 dark days in our history where the fire was so bad in a building people where jumping (yes jumping willingly) to their deaths to escape it.  There's fire that bad, that hot that you would rather knowingly jump to your death??? Scary.  I'm not into fire and brimstone, but I am into truth.  The truth is, I'm not doing my job. I'm in my COMFY pew, in my COMFY church, with all my COMFY faces around me I am not doing my job.  Jesus told me to GO, he told me to STEP OUT, to outreach not in reach, to spread the good news to EVERYONE.  Guess what, He meant you, to tell you that He loves you.  To tell you that He meets you where you are, like He did for me. That He doesn't intend for you to live like this, to feel like this, to cry like that, to hurt like you are hurting. He means for you to be free from these chains in his LOVE (Love from Greek translation meaning agapē ‘selfless love.)  The kind of LOVE that sends it's one and only son to be a blameless sacrifice for you, to wash you as white as snow and invite you into the gates of Heaven to be with God for eternity.  It's real ya'll and I'm not even drinking kool-aid over here.  I have anxiety for you, a can't breathe kind of panic at the thought of not spending eternity with you and so I will boldly go there with you.  We need Jesus.  You need Jesus.  You can not explain this away, you cannot do it yourself.  And if you are a COMFY Christian, get UNCOMFY because we have some rollin' up your sleeves, getting serious kind of work to do around here.  We must be BRAVE and share the gospel, because we are dying and if we don't die first Jesus is coming. I cannot stay COMFY any longer, I don't want you to miss out on Heaven just because I wanted to sit back and be COMFORTABLE.


Friends, Jesus loves you.  He died for YOU.  You need only choose to follow his ways instead of your ways.  It's better to be UNCOMFORTABLE battling through this life TOGETHER with the FINISH LINE being the pearly gates with ALL of my family and friends there to welcome me home.  I Pray this moment that you'll be there with me and I won't stop praying and talking about it to you and hopefully all those who I get to come into contact with everyday.


We are FEARFULLY and WONDERFULLY and BEAUTIFULLY MADE in HIS IMAGE and he loves (agape) us an amazing amount.
Hosanna


Much Love,
Chrystan




Ps- please let me know if you have any questions or if you need prayer, I would love to pray for you.
chrystan.ferrell@gmail.com