Context: For my 31st birthday this week I was inspired by Tyler Perry, the movie Sarah’s Choice & God to commemorate the 7th anniversary of my move back to Austin & the death of my pre-Christ past. I needed an event to mark the end of living my life dwelling on what ‘was’. The event was a burial ceremony & celebration of life. Six of my Sisters supported me by coming, praying, listening to my farewell letter, helping me to set fire to the relics of the past & closing in prayer! I burnt my farewell letter, a different picture for each phase of my life: childhood picture, adolescent picture & a college party girl picture of myself. In an attempt to fully grasp the depth of this event I have written a reflection of it. At the end is a picture of my past burning away. The childhood picture I threw into the fire burned and literally formed into an ash rose. The rose is hard to see in the picture but it is in the midst of the flames…
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
You hurt me satan
You wounded me
You touched me
You won in me for many years
But the day of vengeance of my God has come (Isaiah 61:2)
I have surrendered your injuries to Jesus Christ
His Holy Fire has burned up your evil towards me
He has burned up the hurt and brokenness
The wounded child is dead
The lustful adolescent died
The whorish college girl is no more
In the fire of God the Healer
In the fire of God the Purifier
The old hurt has ceased to have power
God has created from your filthy evil
A beautiful rose
I have never heard of any artist creating a rose out of ashes
God the Creator
God the Designer
God the Creative
Turns my ashes into beauty (Isaiah 61:3)
May all who bear witness ascribe Glory to God and His Son Jesus Christ
Author of Redemption
Author of Forgiveness
Author of New Life
Where O death is your sting? (1 Corinthians 15:55)
Where O Prince of Darkness is your reign?
You did your worst on me
But because pride is your greatest flaw, you underestimated my God in me
My God has given me a rose, literally, for my obedience in surrender
A rose for my trust in Him
I now bear, and in Jesus’ Name will hold fast to, a new identity in Christ, the LORD
Out of the ashes I have risen (Our God by Chris Tomlin)
I am not my own (1 Corinthians 6:20)
Fire doesn’t kill everything
I have witnesses
I will not live in the past
I will not put on the garments of shame again; they no longer belong to me
I will not put on the garments of idolatry towards men
I will not put on the garments of despair any longer
Those clothes have been consumed in the fire, by the Fire that is our God
I choose the garments of praise, the garments of salvation and the garments of righteousness & faith (Isaiah 61:10)
That the LORD God has custom made for me and any who pray to Him
This picture isn’t just about the powers of hell screaming over the defeat of their schemes
Demons are as real as angels
I feel that this demon has been put in his rightful place
Below my feet by the power of the Risen Lord Jesus Christ
Summoned by the faithful gathering of 7 women calling on His Name
So Long Past
Hello Jesus!
Photo credit: JW Smith
“Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old.
Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it?
I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.”
Isaiah 43:18-19
Hello! Welcome to my Liberty Log. I write as the Holy Spirit moves me...well sometimes emotions move me too!
Susy, that is beautiful! I didn’t know the depth of the pain and sorrow that you have been dealing with, but because of what little I did know, I have always thought of you as such a beautiful example of how the blood of the Savior totally transforms the believer. You are beauty for ashes! Love you!
Beautiful!
love you!
Thanks M & K for your encouragement! Talk about spilling my guts, right? God be glorified in this defeat & triumph!
I’m so thankful that God is bigger! Happy 31st birthday and 7th anniversary (we call them spiritual birthdays at our house and celebrate them too)!
Thanks for visiting my blog today. Thank you for directing me to yours. This is a powerful post, and I am thankful to see the Light victorious over darkness in your life too!
~Jennifer
Thanks for your encouragement! It is easy for me to forget that as strong as darkness is, God is greater. When the fire was going none of us felt afraid, we had no idea what was happening in the fire. My friend Melissa said that that should be reassuring to us because though demonic forces are real, we are protected and most of the time unaware of them!
Your friend Melissa is right! Most of the time we don’t even realize the battle that is going on all around us! Then we’re surprised when we see evidence of it. It is real! (Ephesians 6:10-16)
~Jennifer