I am about to turn in this evening. It has been a very active weekend and Monday is coming up quick, but before I sign off, I want to encourage my brothers and sisters in Christ with these words........

You and I serve a God that redeems and does not condemn His own. "The accuser of the brethren" spends all his days discouraging and thumping our ears and hearts with all our perceived failures. But Father redeems! I think about the prodigal. He walked off, played by his rules for a time, and fell into a big pit! Thankfully, he had enough sense to return home! His father welcomed him back with open arms -- and he certainly was given more than his initial hope of just being a servant in his father's house.

One of my best and dearest friends, Suzanne, along with her husband and their "natural" children, have lived in Uganda for about five years now. They minister to the children caught up in the "civil' war over there where a wicked woman has set herself up as "the holy spirit." This wicked woman has her hired guns who run through the villages - kidnap the children -- indoctrinate them -- and ultimately send them back to kill their parents so they have no one else to go to but her. If the children refuse, she disfigures them, she kills their parents, and then she rejects them -- leaving them helpless, hopeless, and alone. My friend, Suzanne and her husband take children as the Lord directs back to their home where they pour out Father's love of healing and hope. Before they were there, the Lord sent them to Ukraine where children are tossed out of the orphanages at 16 and onto the street -- untrained and alone. Most of them turn to prostitution to support themselves. Now, over a decade later, those very children they took off the streets are either serving in Uganda or they have stayed in Ukraine to work and see that nation healed and restored.

Here's what I what you to hear more than anything else shared up to this point. Before He sent them out -- they lived, worked, matured in Him, and built a family here in America. Suzanne use to wonder what all the pieces of her life meant.... all the phases --- the "journeying". But if she were writing this, I know she would tell you He wastes nothing, redeems completely, and uses every life experience for equipping us for reasons we cannot begin to fathom in the here and now.

Did she know He would call them out when their daughters were young to go to an unknown land? No. Could she have seen that all the days leading up to getting on that plane were for such a purpose? No. SHE was not the Map Holder. SHE was not the Lord. Does she know what or where He will send them next? No. But you see, EVERY element of her life has equipped her to now look into the faces of such unimaginable pain -- such darkness -- such unreal warfare -- and walk it out victoriously with Him.

He will not send His child into battle without spending whatever time is needed to properly equip and mature His child. Only He knows the plan -- only He knows the bends and turns in the road along the pilgrimage.

Many years ago, I had breakfast with Heidi Baker, "Mother Teresa to Mozambique". She is a blond-haired, blue-eye Texan. I gleaned so much from her that morning, but one thing I share from her with you --- "Minister to the one in front of you." It isn't where you are -- or even the 'who' that is in front of you that counts -- but are we serving exactly where He has us at this given point in time..... trusting the fulfillment of our life's call to our Creator? Do we believe Him to redeem and restore our perceived screw-ups 100%? Do we trust Him with the road map of our life?

You see, He knows my heart is to finish well. He knows my heart is positioned to fulfill exactly why He gave me breath. He knows I so desperately want to hear, "Well done thou good and faithful servant...... enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." Have I always made the right choices? No. Have I intentionally turned from Him from time to time? Yes. But if I have truly bowed the knee to His Lordship, I do not have the power to trump Him and derail His call on my life. He is Lord -- and I trust His position as such. I don't live in the yesterday --- I can't redeem the past -- BUT HE CAN! He exchanges my past for purpose and redemption. He owns it. The wonder is He teaches, equips, and matures us through it all and wastes NOTHING!

He knew I would run at times -- He knew I would make mistakes (either known or not known) -- but that doesn't change His ability to bring His call on my life to fulfillment. Once I bow the knee and accept Him not just as Saviour --- but LORD ---- that's it -- I am sealed for His purposes. So when the accuser comes -- and oh does he come -- I have learned to say, "Go talk to my Lord -- He owns it!" It shuts him up.

HE accomplishes His will -- His way -- and at His time. I may not like it -- but that is what makes Him Lord and me His handmaiden.

Sometimes we may perceive a detour when in fact it was the "destined" course all along.

I know in my own early life I believed I would graduate med-school and serve the hurting of Africa. I had big dreams! But in all honesty, for me, He showed me that was never His purpose for me. It rather became my own dream out of a desperate desire to serve Him. He has since shown me what my purpose is. Bottom line, it is His will over my life I am after and that may look and come to me very different than I first thought. Only He, the Map Holder, can lead me gently from one day to the next until He leads me across the finish line fulfilled in Him. I believe Him capable of doing just that --- in all my humanity and rough edges --- refining me through it all into His Son's image.

You and I will succeed not because of what we have done or what we haven't done -- or who we are or aren't -- but because of who HE is and the full power of His redemption and Fatherhood upon us! You need to know you will not be settling for "plan B" -- but the original, in-tack, call on your life! He wasn't taken off guard by your "away steps"! Your call is your call -- and your children's call, theirs -- both to be discovered and walk out in faith -- full of faith.

He isn't "holding out on you" because of your past decisions -- nor did those decisions negate or remove the call you sense. Some one out there needed to hear that -- so re-read it -- out loud!

If you are His and His Lordship reigns in your life --- you will go across the finish line and hear Him say, "Well done..... enter into the joy of thy Lord!" because HE is the ALPHA AND THE OMEGA - and besides Him there is NO other!

Give Him all the glory! Shout a shout of praise to our Abba Father!

All my love,
Deborah