"20 And those twelve stones, which they took out of the Jordan, Joshua set up at Gilgal. 21 And he said to the people of Israel, 'When your children ask their fathers in times to come, ‘What do these stones mean?’ 22 then you shall let your children know, ‘Israel passed over this Jordan on dry ground.’ 23 For the Lord your God dried up the waters of the Jordan for you until you passed over, as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up for us until we passed over, 24 so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the Lord is mighty, that you may fear the Lord your God forever.'"
~Joshua 4:20-24
Joshua & the Israelites set up a monument, made of stones they had taken out of the bed of the Jordan River (a task they could only do because God had stopped the waters from flowing) as a testimony to the great glory of God. As we go along the way, if we are in obedience to God, we should be finding stones to build up our own memorial to the glory of God. What will that 'monument' be? It should be our life, a monument constantly in progress, stones being added along the way. While some of those stones may have been ones we tripped over, some of them may be bright shining stones that we found in glorious days. Another words, our lives have ups and downs, but every moment of our lives should be a part of our monument to God's glory, because God has laid out our every moment in a great and mighty plan that only he knows in full.
It isn't for our glory that we should live our lives, though we are so often fooled into thinking we are what is most important.
God made a commitment to the people of Israel, a covenant. And there were priests traveling with the Israelites who carried the Ark of the covenant. But at this moment, when Joshua and his people are building the monument of stones they had found in the Jordan, the Lord speaks to Joshua and in that moment, he calls it "the Ark of Testimony." Was he making a point? I think so.
God's covenant to us (the New Covenant) came with Jesus, and while the Israelites had to carry their covenant around in a physical box, we carry ours in our lives. Jesus is in our hearts and should radiate through our lives...our lives should be an ark of testimony, "so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the Lord is mighty, that you may fear the Lord your God forever."
So, I want to share with you my testimony.
I grew up in a Christian home. Some of my earliest memories are of my parents taking me to church when I was very very young, being in the preschool department. As I got a little older (still a child), I remember trying to fake sick to get out of going to church on Sunday morning. I went to children's camp every year. I remember when I was in 3rd grade, all the girls saying that they had prayed and were Christians now, and they were going to go up at church on Sunday. I don't remember praying, but I guess it could have happened. I walked up the aisle, a few weeks later I was baptized.
While the memories are fading of the time between that moment and the next big moment of my relationship with God, I have some memories of plenty of youth activities and trips. My parents were carting me off to church for everything I asked to be taken to.
When i was 13, in what I believe was November or December, our youth group went on one of many Prison Ministry trips. We would go into one of the local prisons and do drama sketches, sing, and our youth minister would get up and share the hope of Christ with the inmates.
On this night, I remember specifically the things that happened. I remember what the room looked like, and could sketch it out for you even. After Jim (our youth pastor) had gotten finished with his message, they had a time of invitation. I don't remember the song that played, but they had a slide show that played during it. It was slides of scenes from The Jesus Story mostly. The last slide of the show was a picture of Jesus, very close up of his face, as he looked out directly at you.
I remember the moment very clearly. I remember stating to myself, "All this time, and I don't really know you." That evening, on the way home, I shared my concern with a friend, and the two of us spoke with Jim. We stopped at McDonald's on the way home, but Jim, my friend, and I stayed on the bus. That night, I believe, I truly became a Christian. It was 1992.
My journey from there to the next great moment was filled with minor ups and downs. I always struggled in my quiet time. I stayed active in church throughout all of middle school and high school. My senior year I started dating my first boyfriend, and we dated the December after I graduated in 1997. It was about 6 months. Not my first heartbreak (I had gone through some crushes), but the greatest I had experienced. During that time I also worked for some time at a local church as Assistant Student Minister of Administration & Development. (A big name, for doing both secretarial work, design & publishing of documents, and administrative work of taking care of records for 500 students). I took classes at the local community college as well.
That December was a pivotal moment in my life. First, the heartbreak. The next week... I was diagnosed with Graves Disease. An almost unheard of disease that had already impacted my family, as my grandmother had been diagnosed over a year earlier.
While I can't pinpoint the moment I decided how to react to this disease, I can tell you what that reaction was. I had a decision to make. Should I be bitter at God? Should I react in anger to him that my body was fighting against itself, causing havoc upon almost every system of my body?
I decided to go another route. I found great peace in knowing that while my body was weak, there was a greater, stronger, mightier God who was in control of my life. I probably couldn't have said it that way then, but I have a much clearer picture now.
I'm going to speed through the next several years...
3 radioactive iodine treatments, 4 eye surgeries, 3 years of missed school. An interest in Star Trek peaked during this time.
This is the part I love, because I look back now and I smile at God's AWESOME plan for my life! I also laugh and God's great sense of humor as he uses things that humans mock.
Due to a common interest in Star Trek, a friend and I went to a 'convention' in Raleigh. I met a couple there who invited me to another 'convention' in Myrtle Beach, SC. I did that several years.
In late 2000, shortly before I was to go back to school, I started attending a college & career class at my church. We studied a book called "Lifetime Garauntee: How to make the Christian Life work and what to do when it doesn't" This was really the next big moment in my relationship with Christ because this was the first time I truly understood what GRACE meant. Real, true, GRACE, from God. Grace that accepts us where we are, no matter what, and loves us. The grace that Jesus gave us when he died on the cross. I recommend this book to ANYONE!
In January 2001, I went back to college. I started at Campbell University in Buies Creek, NC. I was close to my Stark Trek friends, so I was pretty active with them. I came back home and finished my degree at UNC-Asheville.
Here's where God works wonders. In November 2002, I went to the Myrtle Beach con and met the man that God had chosen for me from the beginning of the earth. It is undeniable that God chose us for each other. Just spend about 10 minutes with us and you'll see that.
So, let me summarize. Christina get's Graves Disease. Graves Disease = No School, lots of spare time, Spare Time = new Star Trek fascination, Star Trek = husband!
If you told me that I could go back in time and take away Graves Disease, that I would never have to have radioactive iodine treatments, never have a heart rate of 133, never have eye surgeries, and never have to use eye ointment in my eyes again---- I would tell you, NO.
So, where am I now in this great walk through life? I have a fantastic husband who I journey through this life with. We are best friends and will always be. We live every part of our lives as best friends, who work together. We work as teammates in chores, in parenting, and even in video games. :) Teammates aside, I respect my husband as the head of our house, as I should. We are both independent spirits, but I totally respect the role God gave to my husband to lead our household. I praise God and am so blessed that God decided to grant me what I told my friends jokingly one day, "I'll know I've met the man for me when I find a guy who will go to the Star Trek convention with me on Saturday and to church on Sunday."
While Keith and I don't spend our time in Star Trek anymore, I think we'll always keep it as a small part of our lives, after all, it is one of the stones in our memorial to the glory of God!
I can't think of anyone I would want to spend the rest of my life with... and as I've told my husband before, "It's a good thing God put us together, because no one else could put up with us!"
I have a beautiful daughter that I can't even begin to describe my love for. She's almost two, she's smart, and she's beautiful. Yes, I'm partial...but really...she is smart and beautiful!
So what's the new big moment in my walk with Christ? I am everyday amazed by God's blessings on my life. I plan to spend everyday of the rest of my life in awe and wonder of his glory. I also plan to spend everyday of the rest of my life glorifying His name, because it is HIM who deserves the glory, not me, for anything good that happens in my life.
God is doing great things in our family. Keith is going to school and pursuing his dream to become a school teacher. I'm so excited for him, and every night that he is at school, when Victoria and I say her goodnight prayers, we pray especially for daddy and his classes.
God has shown me the career in life that he has led me to through every other 'job' in my life. I am working at the church Keith and I call home, as Ministry Assistant to the Senior Pastor, and I am basically the Publications Designer for the church now. I design and maintain the church website (which I am giving a whole new makeover), will start doing the bulletin in a few weeks, and I do all the publications that go into peoples hands or that they see- (Sermon notes, brochures, flyers, poster, banners, handouts, etc.) Great things are happening at our church, and I am blessed to be a part of it.
I've always heard, "Find out where God is moving, and go there." That's where I am.
I can't begin to tell you how important our church family has become to Keith and I. As it should be. I think it's so sad that people in our culture have lost what the true meaning of church, and the true reason for going. It isn't just to hear a sermon. Physically, we require more than just one meal a week, and the same applies to our spiritual walk, we require more than just one dose of the Bible and of God a week. Hearing a sermon is not the purpose of going to church.
It is about being in a community of believers. It's about fellowship. It's about communing with other Christians, being ministered to, but also, and equally as important, it's about ministering to others. And yes, then, it is also about hearing God's word preached by one who God has called to share the Word to us. If we miss church, God does not love us any less, but if we miss church, we miss out on 10x the blessing in our life. And we're not being obedient to God's word to us.
In Acts, it talks about being a devoted "to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers"
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So, there is my Ark of Testimony, although I could share thousands more words of God's glory, through trials and blessings, upon my life.
Let me leave you with this: "But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin." ~1 John 1:7
Are you walking in the light? Do you have true fellowship with other Christians? Have you really let the blood of Jesus Christ cleanse you from sin?
No matter where we are in the journey of life, no matter how young, or how old, it's never too late to start our own 'stone' memorial...are own Ark of Testimony.
