Lisa's Mission

I have come to the conclusion that the areas we struggle with the most are likely the ones God intends to use the strongest in ministry to others. In honestly confronting myself, I believe I have earned the right to speak to people who are in solitary confinements created by the violations of their own internal emotional laws like I once was. Giving of oneself and one's gifts through Jesus to make someone else's quality of life better is ministry in its truest form. God has made real to me in a new way the reality of living as a Christian in this world. My ministry is about teaching others what I have learned -- I hate my flesh, but it is not going to go anywhere until the day I die. God has taught me about showing myself mercy and grace. This doesn't give me the license to sin, but instead it gives me the freedom to become and serve. I cannot honestly offer for God's use something I do not believe or know I have. We put limits on ourselves out of our own insecurities and feelings of inadequacy. If we open ourselves up to admitting these feelings exist, then God can show us how to do things through His strength. When we don't recognize these feelings and/or deny they exist, we lock part of ourselves away from God even if we claim to be giving Him every part of ourselves. My ministry is about helping people reconcile what they are -- perfect, but imperfect.

I lived a life under imprisonment to feelings of inadequacy, guilt and shame -- all the while telling others they didn't have to. I never realized how deeply I had allowed past experiences to ingrain themselves into my thought and emotional lives. I believe God uses me to help people break out of their self- imposed jails to find a fuller, freer expression of themselves in Christ.

Guilt is self condemnation in action. My belief that I was guilty was more insidious than actually being guilty because I told myself things that might or might not have been true, torturing myself needlessly by using false internal rules as measurement. Too many of us today are still living life sentences of guilt. I intend to challenge people to examine their internal beliefs about themselves and their personal rules like I did and still do. I hope they will emerge with a deeper understanding of both God and themselves. This in turn will help them draw closer to becomingall God wants them to be so that He can use them more fully for His kingdom. Scripture is very clear: we cannot love others until we love ourselves -- and that's a hard thing because only God knows the depth of our