I've got testimonies!

As I sat at my desk at work, I felt the urge to call my mum. It hadn’t been long since my last conversation with her but it was always good talking to her. So I called her and we spoke generally about how we were both doing. I told her about my work and the amazing things I was getting to do. I also told her about the idea God had just given me, speaking confidently about it because God had also given me boldness - boldness that awakened me to the fact that anything is possible for me because I’m in Christ.

My mum shared an awesome testimony with me. She had been looking to start an academic program for some time and to do this, she need to fulfill certain requirements. She needed her GPA from her previous program to be higher than the stipulated minimum and she also wanted a program that would offer funding.  After a prolonged period of waiting and inquiring, she finally got her GPA. It was less than what was required but on getting home, she found that there was a mistake in the calculations. By God’s favor and grace, she got it corrected and in the end, her GPA was higher than the required minimum!

This was absolutely amazing and what’s more was that she found a program that met her criteria! It came with a scholarship, was at a renowned institution, and its location would allow her to be close to her house. Her testimony got me really excited. God is faithful! I thanked him for giving us the desires of our heart and that His plans for us are always huge and fueled by love.

Today, I thank Him for inspiring faith in me with all the wonderful blessings he gives me.

In addition, at work I’m doing things that are absolutely amazing and I’m thankful for the opportunity. I’m constantly reminded that, as he told me, His word propels me and sets me apart in everything I do!

I love God! And YES! I’ve got testimonies!

----Tolu Kehinde

Loved By God.

Clip on Love

Here's a video I made a while ago.  Hope it blesses you :)

Please leave your comments. Thank you.

From Mary Kathryn McMurray

Dear Lord,
Sometimes my heart swells so much with love for You 
it closes my throat up with pain. 
I am not much as children go, I know. 
I am not like Mama or Aunt Martha.


Mama used to pray thank You prayers 
in the meadows and sing to You. 
She said there are earth psalms all around us singing praises to You and 
it is nice to join in. 
Since I am not much good at singing, 
I hope you will understand 
I am grateful for so many things.


Tears, a balm, soothing and cleansing. 
Cups, of plenty and sorrow. 
Cold to make me appreciate warmth. 
Manure, though I do not know if you will like me saying so. 
But Lord, when spread over turned ground where new seeds have been planted, 
it brings forth growth. 
Like my troubles in life, Lord.
 It was Affliction and Distress 
that made me come to You and now I do not ever want to leave.


I am thankful for the pieces of fabric 
the quilting club gave me - 
woven and designed like You wove 
and designed me in my mother's womb. 
Like you designed my children. 
I am grateful for our new fireplace 
that gives us warmth, light drawing each of us together.


Dust! The small particles 
dance on in the light. 
Would that I could dance like that for You 
in broad daylight instead of going off 
in the woods because the last time I did it 
my children thought I was out of my head.


I am glad for the candles so I can see to write. 
You are my lamp. Lord, lighting my way out of darkness. 
I am thankful for the gold nuggets Kavanaugh 
brought home yesterday, 
pure and soft the way my heart should be. 
Lord, make me so.


Thank You for the Good Water we have. 
It quenches my body's thirst and reminds me 
that You are the Living Water for my soul.


Even the Air I breathe, Jesus.
I cannot see it but it is there, 
moving and necessary to keep me alive. 
Like You. 
And the Flowers. 
I have never seen so many colors and kinds 
splashed across the hillsides. 
Even Gray Skies are a good thing from You 
because they make me yearn for sunlight. 
Seeds show me death and resurrection. 


I do not know if You approve 
of me saying this, Lord, but I am grateful for the way I feel 
when Kavanaugh knows me. 
Even with James I never felt this 
explosion of fire and light inside me 
like a rain of stars.


Is all this but a hint of what it 
will be like to be in full communion with You, Jesus? 
Do You show us the part so that we can yearn for the Whole? 
I remember Aunt Martha reading to me once that 
to look upon the face of God would bring death. 
Still, sometimes every bit of me yearns to be in 
Heaven with You all the while I still want to stay here 
and live to be an old dottering woman seeing 
her children and grandchildren around her. 
I do not understand all that is changing inside me.

-Mary Kathryn McMurray

in The Scarlet Thread

One year on...a testimony from Tomi Lawal

In February last year, I started this wonderful journey. Unassuming of what would become of me, full of doubts about what was happening to me. One thing is sure though, I wanted it to happen. He must have seen my desire, and acted He acted on it. He’s just awesome, I mean, He puts the desire in me, then fills me up. That’s just love.

I won’t lie by saying it’s been all rosy, cos it hasn’t. There have been quite a few times, that I was weary, I felt like nothing was happening, I felt as if I was just stagnant, making no progress. Trust me, those were horrible times, but He held my hands up and made me rise again, stronger than I was before I fell. He became my pillar and my rock. I absolutely love you.

You took off the veil that hindered me from seeing afar off, the veil of sin that made me short sighted by expanding Your Word in my heart. Indeed, Psalm 119:130 is my testimony. You’ve thought me so many things, loved me unconditionally. Even at times when I kind of ‘ditched’ you, You did not leave me to suffer with my bad decisions. I love you!

I laugh sometimes and feel slightly embarrassed (I know I shouldn’t, but I do) when I think about the things I did when we newly began this splendid journey, but it only helps me to know how far You’ve brought me. I know I’m not even close to the heights You’ve destined for me, but I know I’m on the right track. Though, I waver sometimes, You help keep me stay on track. I treasure You!

I’ve come a long way now, and there ain’t no stopping me, I only get better, with You by my side, showing me the way to go and a heart that obeys You.

A toast to the best relationship ever..cheers!

Your Precious daughter!

           

P.S- This is also to encourage anyone who’s strayed of the Way. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done. He would take you back, the question is do you want to come back? Just make sure it’s not too late before you give a reply to that question.

Hephzibah

The mirror lied, every time I looked into it. All it did was show me inadequacies, inabilities...faults. It crippled me.

You see I accepted those images as truth; reality I didn't like but was so nonetheless. I struggled every time I looked at it because the images it reflected fell very short of "beautiful." 

Beautiful. That meant my hair had to be a certain way; that my skin had to glow with every ray of sunshine that fell; that my mouth had to be perfectly positioned in pictures.

But my features betrayed me. They always fell short - very short. I tried to make myself beautiful, tried to do all I could to measure up physically. It worked and each time I would give myself a pat on the back for a job well done. 

But soon the success of my efforts would wear out and I would be back again, in front of the mirror, looking and thinking, "I'm so not perfect."

It was a draining process, having to convince myself that I was beautiful. It really was. 

The strange thing was I was Christian. I was saved and knew what the Word of God said - that it called me Beautiful and blessed. It called me Hephzibah*, God's Delight and Beulah, Married. I was Hephzibah and I was Beulah - God's Delight, married to Him. Yet, it seemed, this wasn't enough. Every time I would look in the mirror, I would see scars - emotional and physical.

At times, I felt very different from what God had called me; like I was NOT Hephzibah. Not His Delight.

But I fought the feeling. I was his delight, I told myself; I was his Chosen.

But the images from the mirror started at me, weighing me down. I fought them but it often seemed I didn't win.

*"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith..." 

Weights. For me, the mirror was one. It bore down on me, telling me all sorts of lies and most of all, keeping me from fully knowing the love of my Father, my Savior, my Jesus. 

But nothing can separate me from His Love...

Hephzibah. That's what He's chosen to call me. So I lay down past images, knowing that he has called me out to be His Delight.

I am his Delight. 

I am Hephzibah.

Lay down your weights.

Signed,

Hephzibah ♥

*Hebrews 12: 1& 2

*Beulah & Hephzibah are taken from Isaiah 62:4.