Fear. Guilt. Pain.

“Did that little girl eat all those ribs?” Our server nodded at the pile of stripped clean, baby back, barbecue rib bones in front of our five-year-old daughter, Kari.

“Yes.” Kari had eaten more ribs than her Dadda and twice as much as I did. Yet, she looked clean. There were no outward signs to indicate she had eaten anything. Especially barbecue.

She had wiped away the evidence with those little “towelettes” our server had provided. Her face glowed. Her fingers held no signs and we found no trace of the sauce on her clothes.

If a little child can clean up so much external filth with a few small pieces of wet paper towels, how much more can Jesus cleanse in your life.

Everything! Every mark. Every stain. Every bad feeling. Fear. Guilt. Pain. Envy. Coveting. Every sin, for no sin is greater than another is. Christ died for them all that we may have eternal life.

Jesus already knows your sin, and He is still wooing you to so sit down and talk to Him. He knows your hopes, your desires and your dreams. He also knows what is holding you back.

Our God is not an angry God. He created us to love Him but gave us free will. We can choose to love and follow Him or we can remain in this world of sin and death.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16 NKJV).

In Christ,

Berta

Please Share

My Cheeks Are Wet With Joy

 Alone.

I lie here in my room.

A month. Now a year.

How long, O Lord?

Abandoned as one once loved.

Separated by circumstances.

Isolated and forgotten.

A tear tendrils down my cheek.

I hear one say.

“I’d be crazy.”

I reply.

“Welcome to my world.”

Satan hears my weakness.

And takes just that moment.

To whisper in my ear.

“God doesn’t care.”

In my tears, God reminds me.

Satan can’t read my thoughts.

He only hears my voice.

I lift it up to God.

My worship of God reviles him.

I bind and cast him out.

He has no authority.

I am a child of God.

 I thank Jesus for his sacrifice.

His cleansing healing blood.

And for this life he gave me.

Days of bad and good.

Even for this day.

Overwhelmed by loneliness.

I praise his holy name.

My cheeks are wet with joy.

By Berta Dickerson

Adopted on Easter

Our local church talks a lot about adoption. We have added so many children recently I have trouble keeping up with their names. They bless us with their love, joy, and faith.

We have celebrated Easter with loud “Hosannas.” We’ve listened to Jesus’ forgive his murderers. We have shouted, “He is risen!” and “Christ is risen indeed!”

Before I understood the need for Jesus’ death, I knew adoption. My husband adopted our daughter. My father-in-law accepted me as a daughter. We became part of a family full of love. 

Adopted.

Jesus was beaten for our transgressions. He was crucified for our sins. He rose to conquer sin and death in this dark world. And he did it all because he loves us (John 3:16).

The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ offer eternal life and adoption into his royal family. When we accept his great love, mercy, grace, and forgiveness we become children of God.

Adopted. Sonship – full members in the family of God.

Unlike me, God is able to name each of his adopted children. He has their names written in the palm of his hand (Isaiah 49:16). He has inscribed our names in The Lambs Book of Life.

Jesus is my Brother. My Savior. My Friend.

God is my Daddy. My Father. My King.

“The Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba Father’” (Romans 8:15 NIV).

In Christ,

Berta

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A New Creation

In 1972, my stepmother began to isolate my sisters and me (along with her own children) by moving us away from the town we knew and restricting our access to peers. I quit school and worked alongside Dad each day in the wooded area deep in the bottoms along the Illinois River where we lived in a school bus.

I enlisted in the Navy in 1975 and followed orders 24/7 in basic. At my “A” school and then my permanent duty station, I had time off. Used to structure, I didn’t know what to do with myself. I didn’t understand why everyone in my barracks sat crowded together in the lounge watching television. I tried to make friends but was socially inept.

Lonely, I started drinking and fell in with the wrong crowd. I did fine for a while but alcohol soon became my enemy as people took advantage of me. Tired of being used and thrown out like yesterday’s trash, I grew hard-hearted. I lived by my own rules and hurt many people—mostly myself.

I’d heard about Jesus in those days but believed I had to be perfect in everything I did for him to love me. Imperfect as I was, I knew He couldn’t.

But when I met Jesus, I knew He loved me. As dirty as I was, He wrapped me in His loving embrace. He knew everything about me—the good, the bad and the ugly. He washed me clean. He healed my wounds. He saved me from my life of sin and death. He set my feet on the Solid Rock.

I received a new and loving family. Forgiving. Accepting. Welcoming. Alive in Christ.

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation" (2 Corinthians 5:17-18 NIV).

In Christ,

Berta

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