These are two incredible stories that so greatly illustrate the power of the blood of Jesus. Only he can turn your failures and mess into miracle for an even greater message. God has a purpose and their stories confirm the verse:
Romans 11:29 – For God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable.
No matter what happens in your life, the bad, ugly, messed up and stupid, even if it was by your own merit, that doesn’t change God’s plan for you. He hasn’t and won’t change His mind about you.
When you look back in Biblical times, it was a very patriarchal society. Women had very few rights and or privileges; they were seen and not heard. Even still, being Christmas, looking at the life of Christ, he gave purpose and value to women – woman at the well, Mary Magdalene, and so many others. Nonetheless, one of the things I found most interesting and intriguing is found in the very genealogy of Jesus.
Looking through Scripture, in nearly all of the genealogies listed in both the old and new testament, there are rarely women listed. It’s mostly “the son of…” However, in the very lineage of Christ given in the first chapter of Matthew, there are five women listed…Yes. Five. What’s even crazier is that these women, or families they represent, are everything but perfect. They got some serious issues.
First on the list is Tamar (Matt 1:3), found in Genesis 38. The story of Tamar is a story of 
incest. Tamar was the daughter-in-law of Judah – Jesus was to come from the tribe of Judah. To sum it up, Judah had three sons and before it was over, none of them produced any offspring for the tribe to continue. Thus, Tamar disguised herself as a prostitute and slept with Judah and got pregnant, inadvertently preserving the line of Judah.
Second on the list is Rahab (Matt 1:5) , found in Joshua 2. This is a story of a prostitute, not even a Jew, who protected the spies of Israel as they were preparing to demolish her city, Jericho. As a result of her sacrifice, she and her family were protected. 
Third on the list is Ruth (Matt 1:5) who happens to have a whole book in the Bible dedicated to her, Ruth. Ruth is the story of family and companionship and selflessness. Ruth as well, was not a Jew. She was from Moab, a pagan society. Moabites were some 
wicked polytheistic people, the total opposite of the Jewish culture. Nonetheless, Ruth set on a journey as a widow, alongside her mother-in-law, Naomi, a Jew, to go back to the land of her people, the Israelites. Long story short, with the guidance of her Naomi, she found herself a husband, the kinsman redeemer, and found a spot in the lineage of Christ.
Fourth on the list is Bathsheba (Matt1:6), found in 2 Samuel 11. Although she is presented as “Uriah’s wife,” her story is far from unknown. Her story is one of betrayal, adultery, sorrow and 
murder. While married she committed adultery with the very King David and got pregnant. As a result, David had her husband killed, and like clock work God took the life of their son.
Last on the list is Mary, the very mother of Jesus – a young girl minding her business, when an angel of the Lord came and interrupted her life, so much in so she was pregnant before she got married. Back then, that was a social no no.
The point in sharing these stories is one, to see the significance and value of a woman. On the other side, I want to give a brief insight in to how messed up Jesus’ family was. Still, God chose the least of these, to bring forth His precious son. So when people think Jesus came from a generations of water walkers, that couldn’t be further from the truth. I love Jesus so much more because of this. He had issues in his family just like everyone else; it identified him, but it didn’t define him. Although Jesus came from all of a dysfunctional family, he didn’t let that take his focus off of his mission here on earth. He was born to die. So let that be an encouragement to you as it is to me, that whatever background or family we come from, it may identify who we are, but it doesn’t have to define who we are. We can rise above and become all that God would want us to be.
As we celebrate this season, remember Christ. He was real, so real he chose imperfect people, on purpose, to bring His only begotten into the world. God can choose and use anyone he wants. He chose me; He chose you. He can take all your mess and create a miracle that will change history, as he did in the lives of Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba, and Mary.
I really have nothing to say apart from, this is my motivation for life: being more and more like Christ as much as I possibly can on this side of glory. In every thing I say and do I want Jesus to be reflected in me; I want his being alone to define me, and his glory be satisfied through my life. Thank you James Fortune for this song, you music is changing lives.
Oh my!!! It’s been so long since I’ve posted and I actually have things to finish writing. On top of that so much has been going on, so many emotions, many tears, many prayers, many smiles, good days, long days, productive days, and lazy days. I’ve been in the studio, broken a phone, lost a friend and realized how much of a friend I had in someone else; I’ve encountered evil spirits when I was sent to pray them out of an apartment. I’ve been sick, hoarse, bitten, challenged, and put in the hot seat. I’ve learned that beating around the bush 9 times out of 10 helps no one, so in situations, I’m striving to be less passive. I’ve meet two celebrities, and learned how to do love knots, bantu knots, comb and finger coils, french braids, and 2-strand flat twist. I’ve been studying the book of Job in the Bible and it’s blown my mind and sometime soon I’ll share what I’ve learned. It’s just awesomeness. Likewise, I’m apart of the study of Jonah as created by an aspiration of mine, Priscilla Shirer, and yeah she’s awesome. “Navigating a Life Interrupted,” loving it.
Yet, for the sake of this post, I’ll talk about what I’ve learned just today. In the Priscilla Shirer study actually, in the book she questioned our place in life. This assumed that in some way or another coinciding with the “life interrupted,” we may not be in a place we thought we’d be in or what we may be doing may not be as grand as we imagined. Nonetheless it made me think of the verse Matthew 25:21:
His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’
In my life now, as I’m sure many of us are we are quite where we wanted to be, or where we thought we’d be, not forgetting God totally debunked your original plan. Still, even if we yielded and are in God’s will, like me, have the urge to go out and do more and reach more. Yet, for some reason you are home; you aren’t going out to the masses; your territory grown maybe and inch; you may not be getting the calls that you thought you would by now. When this verse came to mind, I was immediately humbled. God has me where He has me for whatever purpose, and if one thing is for sure my patience and faith is being stretched. As I read in James 1:3-4, I’ll be in this spot until His work is completed in my patience and perseverance.
So, in enduring during this interesting time of my life, no matter how much I want to explore and leave and force my dreams to come true by midnight tonight, and meet so many new people, I have to be faithful to where God has placed me, at this very moment, using and developing the gifts and talents He gave me. He promised me that if I am, my oh my, He’ll entrust me with so much more. His work in my life in this stage isn’t complete but when it is…well you’ll just have to see ;)…Ironically though I am scared out my mind, but I know He is with me.
So to keep this short and from putting people on blast, today did not go my way. I was in a competition, and while singing the mic started to act funny then it just went smooth off. First fail of the day, then on top of that I was the last one to get there, but was somehow the first to perform. What in the world?! I was so not expecting that. Then there were the other acts which were cool, including my sister who did phenomenal. I knew one of us had it in the bag, until my fiasco lol. Anyhow, my sister won. I can’t lie and say I didn’t, but I really did want to win…real bad. But, I sucked it up. I had to she was my sister ☺. So after that we were waiting for her prize and all that jazz, and long story very short, she wasn’t able to receive it, due to a conflict of interest. I knew something was wrong, especially when she came back to me crying. Oh snap! It was about to be a wrap. But I held it together; I had to. There was really nothing that I could do. Still, for my sister to cry that protective mode kicked in quick and…yeah, and then my momma apologized because of how the whole thing went down. Man oh, man. Got my emotions all jacked up.
All that to say, this is the second time when I expected something to go one way, my way, and it didn’t, but I accepted the next best thing and that didn’t pan out either. Each time all I could say was, “God what in the world?! What is the purpose ’cause I ain’t gettin’ it?”
The first time this happened, it’s been about 2 years, and the Lord pretty much took away my dream. I had one plan, and it didn’t work out the way I had originally planned, so I settled with what I thought was the next best thing, but would ultimately get me where I wanted to go. Needless to say, once I figured out that plan was so null and void, I never felt so lost in my life. It was then I discovered and accepted God’s control over my life. It was hard because I had it all planned to a ‘t,’ and He stripped it away. So I was left with nothing. Or so I thought. Now what happened today wasn’t as dramatic emotionally and spiritually lol, but it just reminds me that God is God.
Back to my second story, it was when I just waited on God and did what I could do for Him in the mean time. He developed a new passion. This year is the year that what He has been doing in my life since I graduated in 2010 is coming to fruition. On a day like today, I was reminded that things will not always go my way, won’t always go smoothly, and won’t always make sense no matter what way you look at it. Still, God’s favor is real and He knows best. Many times we don’t see what He is up to behind the scenes, and so the only purpose we have sometimes is just to show up and do just what He had for you to do, and trust that God will bless our efforts. I know this because even though things didn’t go how I desired, I still made connections and even got a singing gig ☺.
So if you get nothing else from this post, I encourage you to seize every opportunity, even when it may not be all you hoped. There is always good, we just have to find it and keep it moving. Your purpose depends on it.
Be You for a Purpose 