Rewritten and Rebuilt

   His light broke through the darkness and He led us out in freedom from death's dark shadow and snapped every one of our chains! Psalms 107:14 (TPT) Vines are beautiful plants. Well most of them are, others are destructive, aggressive, and in some cases, poisonous. Sin roots are all three wrapped in one evil vine that longs to choke the spiritual life out of us. Many times what it starts out as isn't the only thing it becomes, as it grows, more tendrils of other sins begin to grow too.    So often these seeds are planted early in childhood before we even can consciously grasp what is happening. One of my earliest memories is of being taunted by kids in my Sunday school class. They danced around me while saying "Heather doesn't have a daddy" over and over. Two things happened that day, the small seedling of hate was planted in me; I also realized that church wasn't a safe place. If church wasn't safe then I believed no place could be. I nurtured tha...

   Lately a word keeps popping up everywhere I turn; it churns my stomach whenever I hear it. It’s desperation. We often associate desperation with a negative image. Desperate conjures up images of addiction, homelessness, and depression. Why is that? What emotions pushed Shaquem Griffin (Sorry, I watched football awards last night!) to become the first one handed professional football player? Desire, courage, and I’m sure a healthy amount of desperation had to be present to continue pushing past barriers on a continual basis. In fact in order to have any success we usually need at least a small amount of desperation. So why do I seem to think and act like I don’t need it in my relationship with God?    When Jesus was ministering, the people who came to Him were desperate. They were willing to make themselves and their illnesses/deformities known. In a society that viewed such things as God’s punishment for sin, simply being visible required a certain amount of desp...