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Turtle Book part 1 Outrageous Ideas on Sex Before Marriage Series
by Marijo Phelps I was thrilled to be "babysitting" a trailer. I moved some things out of my girl's dorm (with roommates, noise of being the room across from the bathrooms, mobile teams coming and going not much peace and quiet) and into my friends' trailer about four weeks prior and was supposed to be there for several months. Heaven, I could cook again in their kitchen! I was having peaceful and quiet times. I invited friends over for dinner and was even enjoying cleaning and doing laundry there rather than in the Laundromat. Then I got a message that the housing coordinator needed that trailer to house a group of women coming in for a conference on adoption. For some reason that sudden notice took me back, back to the time that my husband got friends to move me out of our new house and into a condo. He was gracious to keep the house where the payment was more than my monthly check but he was soon to file for divorce. Yes, this wife was the last to know although he did a pretty good job of hiding the girlfriend even from his best male friend. The devastation was still fresh in my heart. The past year in Youth With a Mission had been an incredible time for me with teaching, walking out forgiveness and God's healing me bit by bit. However, on this evening with only a couple hours notice that I needed to pack, clean the place and move back to the dorm I was having a terrible dj vu. I who hardly ever cried had tears streaming down my face and was crying out to the Lord "Please, Lord, just send someone over someone to help me with this and to help me walk through this. Please help me to release Tom once again to you send someone over just to pray with me." KNOCK, KNOCK.I gulped back my tears in astonishment. SOMEONE was at the door. I know I had been praying and I also knew that the Lord did answer prayer so what's with the surprise? I looked out and there was Mick. The guy the Lord had nudged me to be a friend to I think the quote was "he needs a godly, non-romantic relationship with a woman, will you be that woman?" He was a bearded redhead just like my ex husband. I had thoroughly avoided Mick for a year, said HI and ran out of the room where he was. Lately, we had played some board games - he, his roommates and I. One night he walked me back to the dorm after a birthday party but we had never been "out" together except to buy pizza ingredients so I could cook for the guys in the staff house. And here he was knocking on the door right after I prayed. He must have wondered if I was going to let him in. "Hey, you don't look so good, what's the matter?" "Oh, I get to move back to the dorm and have to get this place cleaned for a group coming in tomorrow" "I'd be happy to help you clean but why are you crying?" The torrent of tears went on fast forward as I sobbed out "I guess I am thinking back to when Tom (my ex-husband) moved me out of our house and it is bringing back too many memories and making me feel just like I did back then." Mick listened and prayed for me as I continued packing. He then reached over and picked up my "Turtle Book". This was a journal with colorful turtles all over the cover. I had been writing in it since my husband moved me out actually. At first I thought the scriptures and "words" the Lord was laying on my heart were for Tom and me and restoring that relationship. Soon it became evident that he was not open to restoration as he had moved his girlfriend into our house. I then realized the Lord was speaking about someone else. I began praying for "whoever he was, wherever he was" and writing down much. I ran around the room to Mick and grabbed the turtle book out of his hands "ahh, it's a journal sort of." Then I thought back to the very first impression I had gotten in that April over almost 2 years prior. I had the sense that "whoever he was, wherever he was" was on his hands and knees before the cross, crawling to the cross on a very difficult path. His body looked like it was barely moving but he was struggling with all that was in him to get closer to the cross. Ask him what he was doing with the Lord that April. "Hey, Mick can you tell me what you were doing with the Lord April a year and a half ago?" "Oh, man, it was a difficult time. It was like I was barely crawling but going to the foot of the cross.." Lord, is that the picture You gave me? Is this the man I have been praying for? Why did you send him over tonight? I was actually thinking of one of my roommates when I was praying that prayer.WHAT is going on here?,/i> "Boy, that sounds like you were really going through it." "I guess when I look back I can see that the Lord has brought me a long way since then and done so much in my life, how about you?" "You have no idea" and he drew me out more about Tom and let me talk and then we prayed again. We got around to cleaning too and the place looked great. As he left I told him "well, you know where the dorm is, don't be a stranger! And I just cannot thank you enough for coming over tonight it was right after I prayed and asked the Lord to please send someone." "I just felt that I should come over here tonight." "Thanks Mick.." Matthew 5:8 (New International Version) 8Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Matthew 5:8 is the text for this series. "Love, emotional/sensual involvement can cause the biggest hurt of life. Sex before marriage is bondage and you lose the power to concentrate, even if you're involved "only" in "making out". Only the grace of God can make you pure. Girls are turned on by touch. Guys are turned on by sight. If you are involved you put that person #1 above God. Two spirits are prevalent in the world now; sensuality and suicide. Check out scrupulous in a synonym dictionary. Check out paradox in a synonym dictionary. Scrupulous = fussy, finicky, picky, choosy, particular, refined, delicate careful precise. Paradox = inconsistency, absurdity, irony, contradiction, impossibility Again, some of these writings are based on a lecture series called Sex and Dating by Dale Crall and are used with his permission. Thank you Dale! There are other articles in this series you might enjoy reading. My blog is: http://myincrediblelord.blogspot.com/ (C) Marijo Phelps all rights reserved. Use with proper credits. About Self Saved by His grace in 1974, from 9 years of professing atheism into His loving arms. RN for 23 years, missionary with YWAM then statistical analyst for Every Home for Christ over 9 years. Living with my husband in the middle of a mountain meadow. GRIN! Wanting to spread the good news Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com |