The Project!

Just got through with a meeting with BeEazy7 oh my gosh Anderson and Greenville watch out! We on a MISSION!

LET THE HEALING BEGIN!

Here is part for to Cindy Beall Story of Christ restoring her marriage! Tomorrow I will list the final post of her story so tune back in! The morning I woke up to head back to Oklahoma from Texas was the first morning in weeks that peace was upon me. Actually, peace covered me like a blanket and let me tell you, it was well received. While it was only a few weeks in the pit of despair, it felt like a lifetime.
Chris greeted us with open arms and a warm home. He’d spent that week grieving himself and hoping his wife would return to give it another shot. We were about to embark on the most difficult road ever…the road to healing and restoration.
While there were plenty who were skeptical of Chris’ heart, he proved to be the real deal. Many men in his situation might have waited to find a “better” job…one more comparable to his previous one. Chris, on the other hand, only wanted to provide for his family doing whatever was necessary. He began selling 2X4’s at a local home improvement store and did that successfully for 18 months.
It is not by accident that I landed a part-time position at LifeChurch.tv just six weeks after Chris’ resignation. I was around the lead pastors on a daily basis and I’m sure my face was a litmus test as to the condition of our marriage. Not only that, but these amazing men and our congregation, led by our senior pastor, Craig Groeschel, supported and loved us from day one. Many ministers who fall into this type of sin end up next to the curb. Even though it was difficult, my pastor and friend took the narrow road for which I am forever grateful.
Chris began to build back my trust in him. He was accountable to a few and never once got defensive when I needed to share how I felt. As we endured the pain and the consequences of his actions, I committed to God that I would not throw Chris’ sin back in his face. Frankly, I didn’t need to…the man lived in brokenness. And still, to this day, he has NEVER been defensive when I have asked questions or when I tell him I’m hurting. He will tell you that he is willing to spend the rest of his life working to rebuild my trust if that’s what it takes. Isn’t that amazing?
I mentioned that Chris only worked at the home improvement store for 18 months. His length of time there was only cut short by the new role that Craig offered him at LifeChurch.tv. And within a year of his new position there, he’d be leading the same campus where he fell some two and half years earlier. Talk about kicking Satan in the… I’m sorry, did I say that out loud?
We are not at the end. The restoration is progressing, but not over. We still have our days where it hurts. Days where we re-live it when others go through a similar situation. Days where we have to explain to our 8-year old why he has a brother who is not his mother’s child. And the fact that we have an amazing relationship with Chris’ son and his mom is nothing short of a modern-day miracle in itself.Come back tomorrow. More good news is on the way.

This is part 3 to this story of how Christ can move within a relationship if you get out of his way and let him! My Word From God
I needed to hear from God. The state of confusion that I lived in at this point in my life was extremely overwhelming. Many wise people in my life were telling me that I didn’t have to make a decision right away, but I couldn’t live with that. Something was calling me to get some clarity.
Noah and I journeyed six hours down I-35 to my childhood home in Georgetown, Texas. I needed someone to take care of us. That someone was my mom. Not only did she play with Noah, which allowed me time to myself, but she cooked for us and cleaned up after us and rented movies for us and took us to eat Mexican food. She’s a terrific mom.
But, she also pestered me a little. She was insistent that I go meet with her pastor, Dan Wooldridge. Because I literally had no strength, I didn’t even put up a fight.
I was surprised how comfortable I was in Dan’s presence. A true shepherd, he listened to my story and watched as tears streamed down my face. I practically begged him to tell me what he thought I should do. He did something better. Here’s what he said:
“I would respect you if you felt that you needed to remove yourself from your marriage. What you’ve endured is very hard. But, you are not a fool to stay and be a part of the redemptive work in a man’s life.”
I was and still am absolutely certain that these were the words coming my Heavenly Daddy disguised in a middle-aged Baptist minister’s voice. I knew it immediately. Nearly six years later and I still remember this quote from him…word for word.
And I’m so glad my mother was a pest

What Now?

Now for part 2 of this 5 part testimony of how Jesus can restore a marriage! What Now? Within thirty minutes, a couple of our pastors came over to our house. Their attempts to even speak were futile. I was crying, Chris was scared for his life and they sat across from us hoping they’d wake up soon. After learning the news, they left and I was alone with my husband. I hated him and I loved him and I didn’t want him near me and I wanted him to hold me. I wanted details and he reluctantly shared them. I wanted dates but he could not supply them. I wanted to know why he did this to me…to us. For that, he had an answer.
Pornography.
Seriously? I thought he struggled with looking at a few naked girls from time to time on the internet. I thought he wasn’t struggling with this very much anymore. I thought we were communicating fairly well on this subject. I thought that’s why he met with his accountability group on Fridays. I thought.
I was married to a full-blown porn addict. He explained that simply viewing images of naked women no longer appealed to him. He needed something more. His sickness grew and grew and gave birth to more repulsive desires. Eventually, after years of progression, this sin completely entangled him and he acted out.
As you can imagine, my husband’s resignation was forthcoming. Had he been employed in the corporate world, that wouldn’t have been necessary. But a pastor at a church? (You do the math.) His resignation brought even more death to my broken heart. Not only was our marriage deeply wounded and more than likely beyond repair, my ministry was lost, too. I would no longer be singing on the stage that had become my home in ministry for the past several years. No longer would I be pouring into mentoring relationships with women. Now, I was the one who needed to be ministered to. This role was not something I was accustomed to at all.
Next to our marriage being absolutely torn to shreds, the most devastating part was trying to go about some semblance of a life for the heart of our 3-year old. I tried to hide my tears from him but that was a feat far too difficult to perfect. One day he walked in on me when I was crying and said, “Why you so sad fo mommy?”
What in the world was I supposed to do.

The day everything changed Chapter 1.......

This is part 1 of a five day series of one Woman and one Man's story of how a marriage was rebuilt by faith and trust in CHIST JESUS! I hope this story rocks your world it made me weep when I read it! Check back tomorrow as I post Chapter2 of Cindy Beall's story! Knee deep in boxes at 217 Brackendale Lane, I heard the front door open. The jiggle of the doorknob was a familiar sound, for I knew the entrance of my husband was soon to follow. Inching my way through a small pathway in between many boxes, I looked up and saw the face of the man I married nine years ago. Chris walked toward me and asked if we could “talk”. The look on his face said enough - something was wrong.
After getting our oldest son, Noah, settled with a Blue’s Clues video, Chris motioned me toward the newly-purchased sofa that had arrived just twenty-four hours before as we began our new life in a new town.
He began by confessing that he had numerous affairs with numerous women from numerous places. My heart began to palpitate while I listened to him. I heard the cracking of my heart as he spoke and felt the devastation setting in almost immediately. As if that information was not enough to handle, he also informed me that one of the women was pregnant, and he was pretty sure the baby was his child.
You have got to be kidding me.
I’m quite certain that Webster does not have one word that could have even come close to describing my immediate state of mind and heart condition.
Bewildered. Stunned. Shocked. Overwhelmed.Befuddled. Floored. Jolted. Nauseated. Sickened.Disturbed. Crushed. Dismayed. Paralyzed.Pissed off.
Nope, none of those work. The truth is that I still can’t tell you to this day how I felt in those first few moments.
What I can tell you is that I was keenly aware that my world as I knew it was forever changed. I woke up that morning a relatively comfortable housewife and stay-at-home mom, and within a couple of hours I became a seriously damaged woman.
As one might imagine, my mind began to race with all sorts of one-word questions. What? When? Where? And of course, an all-time favorite question asked by thousands when thrown into an unwanted circumstance – Why?
I guess I need to tell you the stinger in all of this. Up until the day my husband confessed his adultery, he was a pastor at our church.
This is where your jaw drops, your eyes get big, and you might even say, “What the…?”
I began to ask questions.
Why in the world would my husband choose to do this? We both made vows to forsake all others for the rest of our lives. I had kept my vows. He had not.
Why did you need other women?Wasn’t I enough?Why so many?Were you in love with any of them?Where did it happen?When did it happen?What did you do with them?What did they do to you?How many times?Did it happen in our home?Did it happen in our bed?Do I mean anything to you?Was it all a farce?Did our ministry mean anything?How did you lead others to Jesus while you were living this life on the side?
He knew those questions would be coming and as I asked, he simply sat there and cried.
After gaining some composure, he assured me that it wasn’t my fault. He told me that he loved me and found me attractive. He told me that I was a great wife. He said he loved being married to me. He told me that he never loved any of the women. He told me that his relationship with Jesus was real and that he did love the teenagers to whom we ministered.
Then why on earth would you risk what we have to be with someone else?
He replied, “Because I’m addicted to pornography.”

Watch Out!

When things are going your way watch out! You may be living in the danger zone. For many churches and spiritual leaders when we live in comfort we may actually be in more danger than when we live in a time of crisis. Comfort subtly seeks up and robs churches and pastors of their vision and passion. When all the bills are paid, and the people are getting along it is easy to fall asleep at the wheel like a drowsy driver on a long straight stretch of “driving in place” across the Panhandle of Texas. Crisis creates urgency, passion and at times panic, but comfort lures people into complacency, simply going through the motions.
Mark Driscoll, pastor of Mars Hill in Seattle, warns about the dangers of comfort in his book Confessions of a Reformission Rev. He diagnoses the dangers of comfort in a very direct and disturbing way for many of us who find ourselves going through the motions in ministry.
“The comfort zone is the place a church commonly falls into once they learn how to survive…At this point, the propensity is for the church to settle in, accept its size, and slip into a mode of maintenance. At some point, the people will move away or die, others will get bored, and slowly the church will begin a cycle of decline unless it intentionally reinvents itself missionally to continue to grow by taking risks in an effort to reach lost people for Jesus.”
Sadly, this appears to be the place that most churches in America find themselves. Awash in a sea of people, churches have become closer to country clubs than hospitals, and slipped into the comfort zone. Statistics bear out this reality in harsh numbers that report that 70-90% of churches in America are either on a plateau or declining. Frank Page, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, recently confessed he believed that most of the SBC church will die a slow death over the next twenty years—dying of “cancer of the comfort”.
Where did the fire go? Do we need a spiritual awakening in the pew or in the pulpit? Are we the proverbial frog in the kettle that has been slowly cooked by our changing culture environment?
Jesus and Paul stand out as clear biblical examples of leaders who had an unquenchable spirit about reaching people and changing the world. Even when Jesus had the “whole city at the door” he was not satisfied to stay put and establish his own version of a mega-church, but rather slipped away unannounced to touch the surrounding villages—because “that is why I have come.” In similar fashion Paul was relentless in his pursuit of people for the sake of the Kingdom. Paul noted to his friends in Corinth that “I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some” (1 Cor. 9:22b).
How often can we honestly say we have used “all possible means” to reach our community? Watch out when things are going good, you just might doze of and miss the next turn toward becoming all God wants you to be. I hope you enjoyed that. I'm not sure the Author but its so true have a great day and God Bless You! Love Jason

God's Perfect Gift of Love!

God’s Valentine gift of love to us was not a bunch of flowers;It wasn’t candy, or a book To while away the hours.
His gift was to become a man, So He could freely give His sacrificial love for us, So you and I could live.
He gave us sweet salvation, and Instruction, good and true--To love our friends and enemies And love our Savior, too.
So as we give our Valentines, Let’s thank our Lord and King; The reason we have love to give Is that He gave everything. We Love You Jesus Christ Thank You Love Jason!