Turning Wastelands Into Gardens by Pastor Karena Lout

REFUGE youth ministry led our service last Sat. night and several of our teens shared how powerfully God has moved in their lives. I was so proud of them for sharing so vulnerably. God has come through for them and encountered them with His transforming love time and again. One of our youth shared how God took away the shame that tormented him for so long. He has a desire for others to experience the same breakthrough he received. I love how God takes the very thing that’s been the darkest valley for us and turns it into our mountain of greatest victory. God demonstrated this with the blind man in John 9:6 & 7  “Jesus spit on the ground, made some saliva and put it in the man’s eyes. Go, He told him, wash in the pool of Siloam. So the man went and washed and came home seeing” Those suffering with leprosy or blindness were thought to be under a curse in that time, so were often spit upon. Jesus took the very thing that was used against this man to bring healing. God has a way of bringing restoration. It’s who He is. He makes the desert like Eden and turns wastelands into gardens (Isaiah 51:3). Jesus surveys the land, accesses the damage and then transforms the ashes into something beautiful. In other words, He stays present with us, acknowledges our pain and restores the broken places back to their original design. He’s faithful to do it. Standing with you for your breakthrough!                                                                    Karena