Transitions w/ change...

Lately I have been hearing a lot about transitions and change. Sermons and Songs I have heard just hit my heart pretty hard. I felt like I needed to blog about what I was thinking and feeling so here goes!!!!

This morning Pastor Mike had a wonderful message that I needed to hear personally. It was about transitions and change. He has been preaching on this for at least three weeks I think, but it touched my heart this morning in such a personal way. Now, as the day progressed I started to think about a lot of things that kinda went with this topic that had been happening and I started to put it all together. What an amazing God we have!!!

He spoke on Deu. 11, and this passage is about the Isrealites and them being in the wilderness and coming out of it. At this point the Isrealites were making a transition from wilderness for 40 years to complete freedom from Pharaoh. God wanted them to possess the Land and be strong in doing so. God sends Moses to instruct them during this time and he sends plagues on Pharoah and his people. God uses Moses to part the red sea and so many other things. He was mightly used to bring about God plans for his people.

One thing that spoke to me in this sermon was a question he asked the congregation. "In the situations you are in now, what needs to change". It could be attitude, give up fear for freedom and so many other things. See, I realized at this point that change can come in many different ways. It can come with us choosing it or it happens just because of a transition in life, which is really without choice in most situations.

We can use a lot of info from our past to help us get through transitions now, but there are other times we need a new word for today. That spoke to me very powerfully. See, the blessings we get in the past are wonderful, but we dont need to always go back to the past for those blessings to become part of our future. If we dont be careful we can be boxed in by our past and be captifated by it. We can either not choose to change or we let traditions of the past hinder us from moving forward in the future.

I am so guilty of this. I am so used to doing things one way, and now that our church has gotten bigger things have changed dramatically. Being over the van ministry years ago was so different than the way Keith and I handle it now. It comes with a different set of kids, drivers, new childrens pastor, and circumstances you cant always control. It has taken us quite a while to make the transition, but we have also had to learn that old things dont work as well as they did back then. But within this change we have accepted and learned from it all, and it has been so worth it. It has taught us a lot of things that God wanted us to learn.

Growing our character is hard sometimes, but we have to learn to trust that God is doing it for our good. Sometimes we may be growing in leaps and bounds with our gifts and talents, which has happened with me lately, but I had to learn that my character had to catch up. Of course, I had to learn this the hard way, but hard lessons are to come in life sometimes. See, God has taken me places in the last almost two years that I have never been before. My character has changed a lot, although I still have some more to go. It has had its own set of challenges, but I am determined to go through it all to get to where I am wanting to be. I have to transition from the old Kelly to the new Kelly. God is doing it within me, and its so wonderful. Now I am not saying its a cup of tea, becasue it surely is not, but if I want to be where God is then I have to follow him to my new place.

Our girls club did a human video recently that touched my heart greatly. I started to think about this human video today and how it related to the sermon. Its from the song Alabaster Box. In this song, the lyrics are so powerful.


VERSE 1
The room grew still as she made her way to Jesus
She stumbles through the tears that made her blind
She felt such PAIN, some spoke in anger
Heard folks whisper, there's no place here for her kind.
Still on she came, through the shame that flushed her face
Until at last she knelt before His feet. And though she spoke no words
Everything she said was heard, As she poured her LOVE

for the Master
>From her box of Alabaster.

In this verse, it talks about transitions and how our sin can be looked at badly to others. Mary felt out of place, but she did not let shame or anything keep her back from JESUS. She spoke no words, but showed it in her presence. Her mind and heart was completely on him, and nothing around her. So powerful!!!

Verse 2
I can't forget the way life used to be. I was a prisoner to the sin that had me bound
I spent my days pouring my life without measure.
Into a little treasure box I thought I found. Until the day when Jesus came to me
And healed my soul with the wonder of His touch.
So now I'm giving back to Him all the praise He's worthy of
I've been forgiven and that's why I love Him so much.

See, our lifes are a seris of transitions, and with Mary Magdelene this was hers. We all can put oursleves in her shoes for sure. Some of us have made the transition into being a Christain and being saved through the blood of the Lamb, and some have not. She new she had done wrong, and she went to the master in her own way. She made that transition, and it ended up touching those all around her.

CHORUS
And I've come to pour my praise on Him like oil from Mary's Alabaster Box
Don't be angry if I wash His feet with my tears
And I dry them with my hair, my hair.
You weren't there the night Jesus found me. You did not feel what I felt
When He wrapped His love all around me. And you don't know the cost of the oil
Oh, you don't know the cost of my praise. You don't know the cost of the oil
In my Alabaster Box.

We should do this for our master. In the midst of transition, we need to pour praise on him. Yeah, we can do it with showering our tears, sending praises to his name, spending time with him and so many other ways. God does not care how we do it, just as long as we do. So in your transition of life right now, look at your treasure box. Whats in it. Is it something you can use from your past for today or can you receive a new word to help you get through it. No matter what, choose to pour out praise to him in your own way. He deserves it, and desires to hear it from us just as much as we want to give it to him. Go through that transition, and see where God takes you. I can guarentee you it will be worth it all at the end of your journey.

By Kelly Moody