Redemption Point

Redemption Point

"They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations."
Isaiah 61:4
"The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail."
Isaiah 58:11

Previously, I shared with you that God gave me a one day trip to Guam for my 40th birthday present. He told me at the beginning of the year that I would be returning soon to the island where I lived for two years. I did not know how or when. I just knew His voice. The first time that I went to Guam, I unknowingly went there to fulfill the plan of satan. When I went to the tarot card reader, it was the same as asking satan himself what he wanted to do with my life. I had been trapped by the enemy, fulfilling satan's plan for my life (2 Timothy 2:26), but I came to my senses and God helped me to escape. This time I was going to Guam to fulfill the plan of God. In this physical act, God completed the full redemption process of taking back the land that I gave to the enemy. He is rebuilding the ancient ruins. I am no longer miserable inside but overflow with joy and the love of Christ.

Let me share with you one of the things that God revealed in my short visit. When I arrived on the island, the recesses of my mind released memories of my time on Guam. I remembered the loneliness, the sadness, the grief, and the reckless living. It was equally important that I also remembered how to navigate around the island! I found my way to the place where I lived my first few months on the island and my last year - the bachelor's officers Quarters (BOQ). The building should have been condemned due to typhoon damage when I lived there, but they renovated it on the inside. One of the first things that I did when I came to the island was to walk a trail that led to a World War II plane that had crashed. I attempted to find the trail, but it was gone. The island vegetation had grown over the trail in the past 12 years. This was so typical of Guam. The island was known for its booney trails and hash runs. Both allowed one to explore just as Daniel Boone explored the United States Frontier taking a machete to slash one's way through the island which was overgrown, untended, and untouched by man. From the corners of my mind, I remembered how I always thought Guam was untamed and so wild.

I didn't have the same success finding my other homes on the island. The main road was easy to find, but the horseshoe road that joined the main road twice was hidden from me. Even though I turned down every road to the right and was determined to find it, the vegetation had grown so much that I was concerned that it would scrape my rental car. (It was a convertible, of course. It is the only way to tour an island!) I thought this is typical of Guam to not have the roads cleared. Once again, the theme in my mind was Guam was untamed.

I turned down one last road thinking this must be the road. I stopped the car and looked down into the valley below. This valley was the beauty of Guam - pacific blue and bath water temperature water on the outside of the island and lush green mountains and valleys on the inner parts of the island.

As I was delighting in the beauty of the island, I realized that I was not alone. A man was tending to his yard, the property to the right of me. His yard was nothing like the other places that I had encountered that day. He had meticulously trimmed every tree, bush, and the grass to the perfect dimensions. He told me that he worked in his yard every day.

Then God-bumps covered my arms, and I knew this was the moment for which I came. God said to me, "Shirley, you were just like Guam. You were an untamed child in need of a daily gardener." He took my breath away. Just like that man tended to his garden every day, so had God tended to me. God had sown His Word into the soil of my heart. Through daily intake of His Word, abiding in His presence, seeking Him and not merely knowledge, I was transformed! He has given me the sun, the light of the world, and Living Water. He has tilled and fertilized the soil of my heart. He has pruned me and clipped away the unnecessary things from my life.

God told me to call this place "Redemption Point." I don't shudder any more when I think of Guam and the sad, "untamed" girl that I used to be. Haunting memories were left behind at that point on the hill by the gardener's home. I had released other hauntings, but this one required more. I needed a physical place and that one memorable day when my mind could release things to God if the pain and guilt tried to drag me down. I replaced my shameful moments with this beautiful God moment. When satan brings it up to me, I now have a physical place where I can say those memories can't hurt me anymore but will only keep me from returning to my old ways.

Precious one, what about you? Do you have any memories that haunt you? Were you ever "untamed," wild, lacking self-control, living foolishly, sad, or just really stupid? Has there been a point in your life where you have released those memories to God once and for all and never said "hello" to those hauntings again? Take it from someone who knows. There must be a time when you not only release the times that you repent, but replace it with the God moments and His joy that you have found by abiding in Him. Just like that man tended to his garden every day, so must our Father tend to us - His well-watered garden - everyday.

Pray with me: Oh Father, God, praise You for making us well-watered gardens! Thank You for tending to us every day and watering us with the water of life! Thank You for pruning and discipling us. Thank You for shaping us into creations that are beautiful and stunning in Your sight! You give us breathtaking beauty! You can rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated! There is nothing in our lives that is too devastating and too beyond repair for You!

You can redeem and restore any life that has been ruined by the enemy, by man, or by her own hand. We cry out to You on her behalf that she will find her redemption in You. May she find healing. May she find a place where she can leave her life of sin and replace it with the life she has found in You. It's in the Name above all names, in Jesus' Name, Yeshua's Name, we pray. Amen.

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