Set–Apart Newsletter JAN 2012

Climbing the

Tree

A Love Story

Only God

Could Write

He whispers gently, “Let go.” I grip harder to the branch It is a long way to fall. “Trust me,” He says. I bury my face against the tree And hide my eyes. “I know you’re scared.” I’m terrified. What if he doesn’t catch me? “But I will never let you go.” I open one eye and look at him. “Promise?” I ask. “I Promise.” I squinch both eyes closed And loosen my grip, just a little. The branch starts swaying. “It’s too hard!” I cry. “Let me help you.” But I don’t want to. I want to do it on my own. I reach out a hand a grasp at air. “I won’t stop you.” My fingers find a branch and wrap around it. “There!” I say, “See?” My foot slips and I am hanging on so tight. My knuckles are showing. He whispers gently, “Let go.” “I can’t do it!” I sob. “I know.” “Promise you’ll catch me.” “I promise.” I don’t think this time. I just let go. Suddenly I am falling, falling, falling... Landing soft at the bottom. Cradled in my Father’s arms.

Climbing

the

Tree By

Whitney

Fromm

What

Is

Holding

You

Back

From

Going

Deeper

IN

Your

Relationship

With

God?

I surrender

all

A Story Only God Could Write

By: Christina Crawley

“The truth is that you will never experience a lasting, God-written earthly love story unless Jesus Christ becomes the first love of your life

and the source of your fulfillment. He is standing on the other side of your shattered

heart and dreams and He has some dreams of his own that he so wants you to have. If His

plan for you is marriage, you can trust that He will write an amazing, beautiful earthly love

story for you if you leave the pen in His hands.”

While looking through my notes from the last Set Apart Girl Conference, I stumbled across the quote written above. During the time I wrote that, I believed this truth to be gold and as much as I knew how, I was giving every single aspect of my being over to the newfound love of my life, Jesus Christ. Each day thru my teenage years was spent in what I thought was devotion to God. In reality, all I was doing was tacking on Christian morality to my self-indulgent life. When compared to the girls around me in my public school, I was alright and had convinced myself of that. However, up in Heaven was the Lover of my soul waiting for me to realize how very far I was from being what He wanted me to be. When I finally came to this realization, I fell into the Lord’s embrace and lay everything at His feet, including my thoughts or dreams on whether or not He would one day have me marry. Then in the middle of an ordinary day, God decided it was time. I attended a Camp Meeting that was at a local church and sat down, waiting for the service to begin. The choir got up to sing a song and suddenly I laid eyes on the most handsome man I had ever seen! You know how it is when you see something that is absolutely positively beautiful and you have to do a double take just to make sure it’s real? Well, that’s what I did. But it was not only those things that could be seen by the human eye that drew me to this man; it was those things that were reflected in his life that I had read in the pages of the word of God that captivated

Standing before me was a man whose heart had been captured by Jesus Christ. A man who allowed Christ to transform his entire existence into one that would reflect the strength, honor, and purity of his Almighty King. I immediately thought it to good to be true and dismissed the idea that God would send me such a man. I thanked God for showing me that a man like this existed; not just another self-focused, want only one thing, obsessed with the female body, kind of guy that I was accustomed to seeing. On that same day, a man was sitting in church waiting for the service to start. Then suddenly a beautiful and breathtaking young lady sat a few rows in front of him. (Really, that’s how he described me!) . As he watched me, he was intrigued. You’ll hear him say that in that very moment, he knew he would one day marry me. We immediately became good friends—drawn together by our mutual love for Christ. The more we found out about each other, the more captivated we became. We daily grew closer and with that grew a love beyond what either of us thought we could ever possess. One glorious day, he asked me to marry him and on August 20, 2011 we became husband and wife. The room was filled with the glorious presence of God that day. I could almost see Him beside us, His eyes glowing with love and tears of joy running down His face. Nathan and I both had given God the pen of our lives and were now experiencing the joy and fulfillment that comes when God writes our story. It’s truly a story only God could write!

The fact that I am a

woman does not make me a

different kind of Christian,

but the fact

that I am a Christian

does make me

a different kind of woman.

-Elisabeth Elliot

It’s hard to believe that it’s already 2012! The Christmas Season was wonderful and has always been my favorite time of the year, but as the days in the new year go by, my heart is filled with longing. What can I do differently in this new year? What from 2011 held me back from fully surrendering to God?

Am I willing to let it go?

I pray the few words on this newsletter will inspire you to take new steps forward in your Christian walk. Steps closer to absolute surrender to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Prayerfully yours,

Christina Crawley