As I sat in counseling yesterday digging through the some of the issues of my past I was deeply moved at God's grace in my life.. The things that could have ruined me..God has redeemed to transform me into the person I am today.. I cried over the pain as I remembered but wanted nothing more than for God to use it to reach someone else.. Moved back and forth from feeling sorry for myself to seeing God's grace in the way he protected me and the memories I had forgotten nearly overwhelmed me.. I am so grateful for the people that stepped in to help me heal..
As soon as I got home I checked my messages and saw a most devastating note..
Ladies. Urgent need: A former prostitute in Louisville. 23 years old needs prayers and clothing. She was beaten, raped and sodomized so severely they had to remove her colon. She is currently in a safe place awaiting a housing program. She has no clothes except for what she is wearing. They are asking help from us today for clothing. She wears size 7. Reply ASAP if u can help meet this need.
In an instant I prayed, cried, and thanked God for what I had been reminded of that morning.. I began to text a note to my prayer partners that pray every Thursday night as we go to the strip clubs..
Within 5 hours prayers were up. We collected 150.00 and a trunk full of clothes and personal items that will be dropped off to her today. The praise belongs to God alone.. and thanks goes out to those that were obedient to give their time in prayer, in giving, and in love..
Many people have heard the story about Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead, but most people do not know that Lazarus’ sister had been a prostitute, before she got saved. We find the story in John 11:2 “It was that Mary who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.” Then we have to go further in the story to verse 5, “Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.” Also we have to go back to before when Mary was not a believer but when she came to Jesus for salvation. Look at Luke 7:36-50 “Then one of the Pharisees asked Him to eat with him. And He went to the Pharisee’s house, and sat down to eat. And behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner (the word sinner for a woman in Jesus time meant she was a prostitute), when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant o
il, and stood at His feet behind Him weeping; and she began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil. Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he spoke to himself, saying ‘This Man, if He were a prophet, would know who and what manner of woman this is who is touching Him, for she is a sinner.’ And Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Simon, I have something to say to you.’ So he said, ‘Teacher, say it.’ ‘There was a certain creditor who had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. ‘And when they had nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave them both. Tell Me, therefore, which of them will love him more?’ Simon answered and said, ‘I suppose the one whom he forgave more.’ And He said to him, ‘You have rightly judged.’ Then He turned to the woman and said to Simon, ‘Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave Me no water for My feet, but she has washed My feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head. You gave me no kiss, but this woman has not ceased to kiss My feet since the time I came in You did not anoint My head with oil, but this woman has anointed My feet with fragrant oil. Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little. Then He said to her, ‘Your sins are forgiven.’ And those who sat at the table with Him began to say to themselves, ‘Who is this who even forgives sins?’ Then He said to the woman, ‘Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.”
I write this not to give glory to the abuse or the sin but to tell you that there is a great God who loves you and me.. who wants nothing more than to redeem your life and the lives of those that suffer with abuse and sin. He is here.. Those of us that know him are healed by Him.. it is our commission to spread His word in love to a world that aches..
Yes my life was altered as a child but I praise God for his saving grace.. I praise Him because I know him as my only father and am blessed at the family he has given me..full of wonderful sisters and brothers that have a heart for the broken and bruised..
Please be in prayer for this precious woman I can't help but think of the love she will experience as she begins to see the way that He is moving in her life.
