Episode 256-Rebuilding Jayne & You

This fiction book, Rebuilding Jayne, and the nonfiction book, Sweet Grace, are very connected. My biggest issue when I was super morbidly obese and Jayne’s issue in is we are both refusing to do what God was telling and showing us to do. I resonate with Jayne because in many ways she and I are a lot alike. We’re also very different. She is wealthy and I am not for one.

At one point God even told me, Jayne is you. Well, certainly at the core of her being she is. I do think it is so true that we are all alike in many ways and so very different in others. Yet, we can learn from each other. I never expected a fictional character in a book to minister to me, but she really did.

Even though I wrote the book, God had a lot to say to me through the story of the book. He told me what to write many times when I didn’t have any idea how to get a character to the point or decision they needed to make. I was just the scribe. He is the Author.

I wrote Rebuilding Jayne to help people understand God is not this big person in the sky ignoring what we are doing. He’s with us in every aspect of our lives. When He speaks to us, we need to pay attention and do what He tells us to do.

God knew His plan for me was what I needed in order to live. It took me many years to understand that what I told Him was the truth—I can’t stop eating sugar. I can’t do it by myself. But I can do it when I follow what God shows me to do. I had to surrender every part of me to God, even what I eat.

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To check out my new book go to Amazon.com and search for Rebuilding Jayne by Teresa Shields Parker. Available in kindle, paperback, and hardback.

Episode 255-The Master Potter

We are all lumps of clay in the Master Potter’s hands. God is God. He created us for a purpose. When we find that purpose it makes all the difference in the world.

Instead, a lot of us rebel against how God made us. Romans 9:20-21 TPT: “Who do you think you are to second-guess God? How could a human being molded out of clay say to the one who molded Him, ‘Why in the world did you make me this way?’ Or are you denying the right of the Potter to make out of clay whatever He wants? Doesn’t the Potter have the right to make from the same lump of clay an elegant vase or an ordinary pot?”

God is telling us that no matter what we look like, what our gifts or talents are or what family we were born into, whether we are rich or poor we all have to make a decision about whether or not we are going to follow God’s will for our lives.

The problems come when we want to be something God never intended us to be or we refuse to step into the destiny God has for us or we desire the same destiny someone else has.

God sees us for what we will become. He also sees the ways we have failed Him, but tells us time and time again that if we repent and turn to Him, we will be saved because He is alone is God.

Our bodies are like dust and to dust they will one day return. This is why God uses the analogy of clay and the potter. Our bodies are like the everyday common clay pots and dishes those in Biblical times used to eat their meals on.

The difference between us and those common utensils is God’s presence lives inside of us. “We are like common clay jars that carry this glorious treasure within, so that this immeasurable power will be seen as God’s, not ours.” 2 Cor. 4:7 TPT.

The problem is that dishes get broken and so do we. Our dreams get dashed. People fail us. We fail ourselves. We do bad things that we can’t undo and feel, just like the broken dish we threw in the trash that there is nothing good left in us. If a broken dish needs to be thrown away, then what should be done with a broken person?

God, though, sees value in everything. He will use our brokenness to make something truly beautiful from our lives.

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Sweet Surrender: Breaking Strongholds Link: https://www.amazon.com/Sweet-Surrender-Teresa-Shields-Parker/dp/0986159247/

Episode 254-Jesus Loves Me

Romans 8:38-39 are some of the most dramatic, poetic and impactful words in scripture. They are so monumental that we sometimes just pass right by them. However, when we finally internalize what they really mean to us it will change how we view God and drive us to trust Him more.

“For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:38-39 NKJV

For eight chapters in Romans, Paul has been laying out the plan of salvation and sharing who Jesus is and why trusting Him is important. In this conclusion to the first part of Romans, Paul is telling these new believers that Jesus’ love for them is a trustworthy foundation for their faith. It will stand any test they might throw at it. His conclusion is a convincing and persuasive argument that NOTHING, can separate those of us who are in Christ from Jesus love for us which gives us access to Father God.

The depths of God’s love is seen in what Jesus did. It should be a big deal for someone to say, “I love you.” As awesome as that is, it’s quite another thing entirely for them to tell us that nothing will stop them from loving us. Nothing.

I love my husband. We’ve been married for 44 years. Not every year was perfect, but the imperfect years were mostly my fault. I say mostly because it does take two, right? See, God gave me a gem when he gave me Roy. He is calm, patience, loving. He has a servant nature that I could never outdo.

He loves me and I love him, but are there things that could separate me from his love? I’m sure there are. But he has already put up with a lot from me, think 250 more pounds on my body. That still didn’t stop him from loving me.

However, if I yelled and screamed at him every day, that would do a lot of damage to our relationship. Are there things that could come between even the most committed couple? Yes, I’ve witnessed it happen to those who thought they’d be married forever and then out of the blue, something happened to separate them.

My question then is how can God say that there would be nothing at all that could ever stop Him from loving me? We are humans and we aren’t perfect. We learned that back in Romans 3:23: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” All means all, everyone, yes, me and you, too.

But here’s where Romans 6:23 ESV comes in. “ For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” This verse solidifies our fate as sinners, but it also gives us the way out. Jesus is God’s pure gift of love to us. It is only because of what Jesus did that God can love us.

Without Jesus willfully agreeing to leave His heavenly throne and come to earth as a human, die on the cross, be buried, rise again from the grave, and ascend to heaven, God couldn’t love us. We are sinners by nature. It took God with skin on to rescue us when we accept His gift of salvation.

If we have accepted Christ, God now sees us through Christ’s righteousness and as such we are welcomed into God’s presence.

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