"The Day The Locks Were Changed"

I got an email today from a friend of mine who pastors Legacy Outreach here in Spartanburg. He's preaching a series of sermons on addictive behavior and God gave him this poem Sunday morning. It is such a visual of how we get into situations that we never thought possible when we step away from God's grace and try to live a religious life instead of one that is powered by the Holy Spirit of God living within me, when I begin to live in secret instead of in the Secret Place of the Almighty God. I asked him if I could share this with all of you because maybe there is someone out there that could use this warning. Thank God for His grace, His mercy, His restoration and His kindness, which as the Bible teaches, is what brings us to repentance.


"The Day The Locks Were Changed"

I had a place that no one knew
That I would often go.
It all began as innocent;
At least, I thought it so.

It started out an empty room
No furnishings, all swept.
But soon I had it all fixed up
Where secret things are kept.

I could leave at any time
Because I had the key.
But what I didn't realize
The prisoner was me.

One day, when I went inside
Things had been re-arranged.
Something here was different;
The locks had all been changed.

Birthed in curiosity,
Fed by selfish greed;
My secret world had just become
A place for all to see.

This place that used to bring me joy
Where I could slip away
Has now cost me an awful price
That I can never pay.

My family all have broken hearts;
Relationships dismembered.
And now all of the good I've done
Will never be remembered.

If I'd believed the Word of God,
What's written on its pages;
I would have known I'm not exempt
From paying Satan's wages.

Manning Strickland, 2009

***If you would like to share this with someone else, please be certain to give Pastor Manning credit for it! Thanks!

Watching it all develop...

I am blogging from my comfy spot in my bed with my littlest one beside me- where we have been for a couple of hours recovering from a long week too full of great activities that just wore us out! I was checking out some blogs of a couple of friends of mine and realized that it had been too long since I had posted- not because I have had nothing to say but I have had too much to pin down. God is teaching me and my family so much right now so fast and so intensely that I just told a friend of mine that I feel as if I have been in supernatural bootcamp for the past few months. It's a great place to be, an exciting place to be- but also a place that is hard to describe. How do you put into words what it is like for the God of the Universe to speak to you in a way that you did not know was possible, to open your eyes to things about yourself that you never would want to admit, and to do it all with such kindness and such patience and tenderness that your heart turns toward Him in a way that you never thought it could? So every time I have sat down to the computer to say, "Wow- listen to this!", the words just have not come.

Sitting here, trying to figure out why I have had so much difficulty figuring out what to say (and if you know me, you know that I never have trouble figuring out what to say!), I think it is because I needed to let it sit inside me and develop for a while, kind of like a Polaroid picture. If you take the picture, you know what should show up on the film, but there is so much excitement in sitting there watching that square go from white to a recognizable image. You look at it so intently to see the edge of a surface, or the outline of someone's hair, then you can see the shape of their body, maybe, and next a little color on their clothes, and all of a sudden there is the thing you took a picture of in all of its glory, just like you saw through the little viewfinder. That is how it has been with me and all that God is teaching me. I have heard Him and experienced Him, there has been an "image" placed before me of what message I believe He is writing on my heart. But living it out and really grasping it has been the same as slowly watching the picture show up- and I think I needed that space to see that what He said is not just true in theory but also true in practice, that He can develop His image in my life if I allow Him to.


I am so grateful to be a part of the incredible things that God is doing in the world at this time in history! Come quickly, Lord Jesus- let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, and let me be a part of seeing it all unfold and develop- in me, around me, through me. Blessed be your Name!