by Donya Dunlap | Mar 17, 2013 | How Great is Our God
I’m taking advantage of St. Patrick’s Day in a different way than most. Today I’m going back to the root of the occasion to celebrate in the fashion that the reported saint himself would have so many years ago…by sharing with you the amazing works of God in my life. It’s a different sort of post than normal, but I hope you’ll continue to read and rejoice with me!
I moved to Charlotte in January to begin a women’s ministry in the heart of the city.
This weekend marks two months since I arrived. The plan was for me to get established in the city, find employment, become an active part of Citylight and to branch out into the ministry as God opens the doors. So far, everything has gone according to plan. My heart rejoices every single day that I get to be here and be a part of what God is doing.
Within the first two weeks of moving, God provided many things including a place to stay while looking for a home, a job and a fantastic church family at Citylight. I have caught up with old friends and met knew friends and have become very well acquainted with my maps app as I make my way around town.
On Tuesday, February 12th, the Lord allowed the realization of a long-time dream of mine, the official release of my book, Forgetting the Fairy Tale. Already reports of how the book has been a help and encouragement have come back to me and my heart rejoices every single time that God allowed me to take part in sharing His love to young women, many of whom I will never meet in person. I pray that the message continues to spread over the months to come.
Many of you know that God has laid a special burden on my heart for human trafficking victims. At the end of February, I was privileged to meet Aimee Johnson, Founder of the Rise Up Anti-trafficking Ministry. Her ministry began a little over a year ago and God is blessing them in a mighty way. They have many needs for volunteers to work with their ministry to women in clubs and on the streets, befriending them, sharing Jesus with them, and helping them escape from the life when God opens the door. I am praying for a way to be able to learn from them and minister alongside these women in the coming days.
Later that same week, Citylight took part in the Charlotte Gallery Crawl. As a graphic design student, I was especially excited to take part in putting on the event to show love to several local artists. We were able to make new friends and introduce the ministry center to them. We were also able to provide goodies from Neet’s Sweets, a local bakery founded by a former trafficking victim that also assists victims. The night was great fun, and I believe a blessing to many as well.
God is moving and stirring in this city and I am thrilled that He would allow me to be a witness to and a vessel for His work. I eagerly look forward to the day when I can minister to the women of Charlotte in a full-time capacity. Speaking of…I am so excited that
Citylight’s Women’s Ministry has it’s first monthly supporter!
If only a few more donors would commit to giving $250 a month as well, I would be able to do commit to the ministry full-time. There is certainly enough to do to fill my time! If you would like more information on how to give, please click here.
Thank you for taking time out of your own St. Patrick’s Day celebration to read of how God is working in my life! I am working towards establishing a monthly prayer update which will go out via email. If you would like to be on the email list for those updates, be sure to subscribe using the field on the right! I covet your prayers.
Photo credit: katebartnik / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND
by Donya Dunlap | Nov 20, 2012 | How Great is Our God, Making a Difference
I write today to give thanks and to celebrate a modern day miracle and a new adventure.
You may recall two posts that I wrote at the beginning of this year sharing what I believed God wanted to do in my life in 2012. My “resolutions” were to dream God-Sized Dreams and to have A Supernatural Testimony–essentially, to live a life that could only be explained by God and His working through me. I can honestly say that He has done much more than I could ever have asked or thought…
and He’s just getting started!
Yesterday afternoon I resigned from my position at Oakwood Baptist Church as a step towards beginning a new women’s ministry in the heart of Charlotte under Citylight Baptist Church.
Until June of 2011, I never dreamed that I would ever want to minister in a public way or be a church leader. I was content serving in my local church and ministering to women through my writing and any mentoring opportunities that came my way. But when God prompted my heart towards starting a women’s ministry in the heart of a major city, He also changed my desires. I realized that the writing of my book, which I previously felt was going to be the pinnacle of my women’s ministry, was only the start. He has a far different plan than I could have imagined and I am in complete awe that I get to take part in it. I am humbled and overwhelmed at His working in my life and so very, very thankful.
God has given me a large vision for women’s ministry and I am excited about what is to come.
For now, my plan is to get established in Charlotte as soon as possible and begin serving in my new church and getting to know the people there and in the city. I will be sharing my journey through my blog, as always, so be sure to subscribe to the updates so you don’t miss any of the exciting things God does!
I ask that you would help me by doing three things to move this new ministry forward:
1) Pray for me, for the ministry, for Citylight and for Pastor Brian and Laura Norris
2) Consider giving a tax-deductible donation to help the ministry begin as soon as possible.
3) Rejoice with me at the goodness and greatness of God and His working among the children of men! (Psalm 107)
Click here to visit the new Women’s Ministry page of this site for more information and to donate.
Click here to visit Citylight’s website.
by Donya Dunlap | Oct 25, 2012 | Art and Design, How Great is Our God, The Spiritual Life
As a beginning designer I knew very little about what artists call The Creative Process. When working on a logo, I might sketch out a few ideas, but then I would jump right into my design software and work on flushing out a solution. I skipped several important steps.
Before you can adequately summarize an organization, a person, a product or group into a symbolic representation, research must be done. You need to learn all the various aspects of the its goals, its personality, its people, its mission and more before you will know how to begin a design.
From there you need to brainstorm. Taking into account all the various things you learned in your research, you then begin to consider images that symbolize those concepts and how they relate to each other. You have to consider color and the color meaning, single shapes, complex shapes, and styles. You have to try out a multitude of ideas and from there refine and refine and refine until you arrive at a completed image that adequately represents everything your client is trying to communicate to their audience.
There is a similar creative process that happens in our relationship with God.
Often we are saved and become comfortable at a church then jump right into super-Christian mode and try to serve the Savior without really knowing Him. We skip the learning and meditating parts of getting to know God and try to make Him happy with us based on our performance.
This kind of mentality hurts us and our “audience” in several ways.
- We never know what it is like to have a true, deep, meaningful relationship with God
- We lack an understanding of who God is and how He views us as His children
- We are continually frustrated with our shortcomings, and translate that into a belief that God must not be pleased with us either
- We misrepresent God to others by not walking in the Spirit and therefore causing unsaved people to think that Christians aren’t any better than the world which also effects their view of God
I wrote of this in my soon to be released book, Forgetting the Fairy Tale:
We blissfully enjoy all of God’s blessing until He takes away a relationship, or allows us to have a terminal illness, or doesn’t allow us to get married, or anything else contrary to our picture perfect Christian lives, and then we turn our backs on Him. Why? Not because He doesn’t love us anymore, but because we really never loved Him. We never got to know Him. So when He does something that doesn’t match our image of Him we get angry… We become bitter.
God is so far above us and His ways are so much higher than our ways. We will never be able to truly know Him in all of His complexity because we are human and He is divine. But we can continually grown in knowledge of His person and His grace if we “do our homework” so to speak. If we stop the continual motion of our lives and simply sit at His feet, read His Word and listen for His voice, He will reveal Himself to us.
James 4:8 tells us to “draw night to God, and He will draw nigh to you.”
The reason that we struggle so much with what God does is that we don’t know who God is. We need to pause, rewind, and court our Savior. Just like any human relationship, understanding and love takes time.
I encourage you to pull out some paper and colored pens and hang out with Him for a while. Write out His characteristics and what they mean to you. Look up verses that talk about His majesty. Read through the Gospels and write down observations of Jesus’ character and personality that stand out to you. Draw picture graphs outlining truths of who God says He is and who He says we are in Him. Get creative!
What can you do today to get creative with your relationship with God? I’d love for you to share your ideas in the comments below.
by Donya Dunlap | Sep 25, 2012 | How Great is Our God, The Single Life, The Spiritual Life
There are times when words fall short. We have a longing, an ache of heart and soul that cannot be expressed with common language. And yet the poet William Butler Yeats seems able to structure simple words and phrases to mimic an unspoken cry better than most.
The Carina Nebula – Photo Credit: NASA, ESA, and M. Livio and the Hubble 20th Anniversary Team – hubblesite.org
Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
– William Butler Yeats, “Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven” courtesy of allpoetry.com
Z. Randall Stroope set this wonderful text to music and I have the wonderful privilege of singing it along with several dozen other talented musicians in an upcoming concert. (Listen to a recording of the piece here) We’ve been rehearsing it now for several weeks. The text, the melody, the harmonies and the emotion of the piece struck me deeply the first time I heard it. Since then it has been simmering in my heart waiting for me to gather the courage to try to put my thoughts on paper.
The poem is titled “Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven.” Yeats used the man Aedh as a character is several writings. While there are varied explanations of what was behind the words of the young man as he poured out his soul at the feet of the woman he loved, I couldn’t help but immediately think of Ruth chapter 3:7-9.
And when Boaz had eaten and drunk, and his heart was merry, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of corn: and she came softly, and uncovered his feet, and laid her down. And it came to pass at midnight, that the man was afraid, and turned himself: and, behold, a woman lay at his feet. And he said, Who art thou? And she answered, I am Ruth thine handmaid: spread therefore thy skirt over thine handmaid; for thou art a near kinsman.
One of my great burdens is that we modern Christians miss so much truth buried in the ancient and foreign cultures written of in the Bible. We are so busy and scattered that we read without understanding or imagination. The love story of Ruth and Boaz is one so wrought with emotion and meaning, but we so often rush through the reading of the four short chapters, mark it off of our to-do lists and completely miss the point of the text. I’m not going to delve into the meaning of the entire book at this time, but I want you to pause for a moment with me. Will you do that? Will you take a deep breath and put yourself into this narrative?
Ruth is a widow. She has loved deeply and lost much, including her family and homeland which she exchanged in order to remain with and care for her aging mother-in-law. She is in a strange town surrounded by strange people. If that was you, how would you feel?
Frightened? Vulnerable? Exposed? Lonely?
I’m sure there were times when Ruth felt all of these things. I imagine she cried herself to sleep on more than one occasion.
Several months pass and while times are difficult and finances are tight, Ruth and Naomi are able to live off of the grain gathered in Boaz’ fields. There is an obvious attraction between Ruth and Boaz, and yet neither acts in a way to bring their relationship to a personal level.
One night Naomi determines that something must be done. She instructs Ruth to bathe and dress herself then secretly go to the place where Boaz is working over the grain from the harvest. Ruth complies with the request of her guardian and spreads her garments over the uncovered feet of the one who had power to protect her or crush her should he so choose.
After a time he is startled awake by the realization that there is a woman at his feet. Ruth explains her presence and essentially asks Boaz to marry her. Please, let the scene work in your heart and mind for just a brief time. This young woman, so damaged by her past, so fragile, so desperate, lays all of her hopes and dreams for security, a future and a family at the feet of one she barely knew and asks him to please, tread softly.
The story of Ruth and Boaz is a picture of our story with Christ. We are poor and needy and have nothing to offer Him, and yet, when we ask Him, He takes our fragile, broken hearts so gently in His hands and He heals them. He gives to us His love, His protection and all the treasures of Heaven. And yet, so often we turn away from His love and trample over His gifts. But to the glory of His name, every single time that we return to His feet seeking forgiveness, He reaches down and lifts us to His heart again.
The very One who owns the heavens’ embroidered cloths of gold and silver light is madly in love with you tonight. Tread softly. He dreams of an intimate union with you as you journey through life and into eternity. Tread softly. Draw near to Him.
Tread softly.
by Donya Dunlap | Sep 22, 2012 | How Great is Our God, The Spiritual Life
It was a beautiful, fall day. There were only a few puffy, white clouds breaking up the expanse of bright blue in the sky. Energy among the student body was high until the chapel service was brought to a close by an announcement that shocked us all. A plane had flown into one of the Twin Towers in New York City. Before the reality of what was being said could begin to sink in, another announcement was made. A second plane. A terrorist attack. They think the Pentagon and the White House could be next.
September 11th of any year will never again be just another day. It will be a day that we as Americans reflect on loss, evil, heroism, patriotism, justice and freedom. And rightfully so. But as deeply as the memories of the horror touch me today, there is something else that strikes me even more powerfully. Grace.
Unimaginable, unfathomable, unalterable, unending grace.
It’s so easy for me to stand and sing “Grace, grace, God’s grace. Grace that is greater than all our sin.” I’ve been singing that song since I was a little girl without so much of a second thought. But the truth of that statement should stop us all mid-note. Grace that is greater than ALL our sin.
Grace doesn’t often seem like that big of a deal to us because we tend to have a light view of sin. “My sin isn’t as bad as that person’s sin.” “I’m a good person.” “Yeah, I might do this or that, but I’m not a murderer for goodness sake.” We look at something so purely evil as hijacking a plane and flying it into a building, killing thousands of innocent lives and we can’t imagine grace big enough to cover something so horrible. In comparison, getting angry and saying something we shouldn’t doesn’t seem to even measure on the same scale. What we fail to realize is that both of those acts are sin. While humanly speaking, those two things could never compare, from God’s point of view, both of them sent His Son to the cross. I am just as worthy of hell as a murdering terrorist apart from God’s grace.
The incomprehensible grace of God.
At some point in Sarah’s journey with God, she chose to take matters into her own hands. She chose to doubt the truth of God’s Word, and she chose to believe the lies of the liar. She convinced herself that she was just doing what was necessary to bring about God’s plan, but she failed to ask God what He thought about her idea.
The results of Sarah’s decision can still be felt around the world today. The hatred between the descendants of Isaac and Ishmael has brought forth all manner of wickedness and death. Acts of violence are committed every day in the name of God, just as Sarah’s sin was committed in the name of God thousands of years ago. It may seem that the atrocities committed on September 11, 2001, or those that continue to be committed in the Middle East today cannot possibly compare to the sinful schemes of your innermost thoughts, but please realize that both are manifestations of the lust of a sinful heart. ‘Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.’ (James 1:15) The sin of the terrorist and the sin of the teenager both sent Christ to the cross. – Forgetting the Fairy Tale
by donyadunlap | Apr 21, 2012 | How Great is Our God, The Spiritual Life
This post is the third in a series of truths that the Lord has really been revealing to me in new and personal ways of late. The first initial thought is that death is a gift and when we break down that idea further we find that through death we are also given hope in and intimacy with Christ. There is one final thought that I have been considering regarding this topic and that is through death we find healing.
I know that may sound like an oxymoron to you. If one is dead, there is no healing going on. Whatever sickness or injury they had was so severe that it resulted in a total system shut-down. There is no recovery period for death. It’s the end of all things…or is it?
Every spring we celebrate the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is a combination of all the worst and all the best of the history of humanity. At the beginning of the week Jesus is ushered into Jerusalem as a local hero and celebrity. At the end of that week He is betrayed by one in His inner circle, falsely accused and arrested, abandoned by His friends, forced to endure a humiliating trial that was rigged from the beginning, then whipped within an inch of His life by Roman soldiers who were skilled in creating as much pain as possible without killing a person. Following that He could have been released, but due to the cowardice of the political leaders of the day and the manipulation of the spiritual leaders of the Jews, His life was traded for a well-known criminal and Jesus was crucified. After He was declared dead, Joseph of Arimathaea and Nicodemus quickly bound His body with spices and laid Jesus in a nearby tomb so that they would not defile the Sabbath day…and that was it. At the end of His perfectly sinless and selfless life He enjoyed a brief moment of celebration and then a whirlwind execution to be hurriedly thrown into the side of a hill to decompose. His followers were left confused and grieving with nowhere to turn. But what seemed like the end of all things to them was only the beginning.
On the morning of the third day, just before dawn, Mary Magdalene came with two other ladies to the tomb with the intention of properly preparing Jesus’ body for burial. When they arrived, they found the massive stone that was protecting the opening of the tomb had been rolled away and Jesus was gone. John chapter 20 tells us that Mary ran to tell Peter and John that someone had moved the body and together they returned to the tomb. The men were in and out. They saw the head cloth folded neatly and laid apart from the rest of the rags and that was all they needed. They rushed out to find the other disciples, not stopping to explain what they had seen. It seems that Mary’s helpers followed the two disciples leaving her alone in her grief.
Mary was familiar with loneliness and pain. When she met Jesus she was possessed with seven demons. Based on other Scriptural accounts we know that this kind of affliction was often accompanied by physical pain, some kind of handicap such as blindness or deafness, and even mental torment that today we would call clinical insanity. Just the presence of one demon within a person could have any or all of these effects, so imagine Mary’s pitiful state by being inflicted with seven such spirits. What friends or family would stand by one in such a condition? What happiness could a person feel when burdened with so much evil? Mary lived every single moment in utter torment until she met the Savior.
Jesus released her from her hell on earth and with that healing came joy unspeakable and eternal gratitude. From then on, Mary could be found following the footsteps of Jesus. If she wasn’t at His side ministering to Him in some capacity, she wasn’t far away. Rather than wallowing in the shame and guilt of her former life of bondage, Mary lived in freedom, whole-heartedly serving the One that had delivered her. She devoted her whole life to Him. She ministered to Him as part of the band of followers that traveled with Him and she is even named as one that stood by Him as He was dying. When the men took Jesus from the cross, Mary followed them to the tomb so that she could come back later and give His body the proper burial it deserved. But now, she couldn’t administer this final show of love to Him because He wasn’t there. The tomb was empty and Mary was beside herself.
Stooping to look into the tomb again she saw two angels sitting on either side of the bench that had been carved out of the rock where the body was laid. She was so upset that rather than being startled at seeing these beings that were not there moments before, she simply replied to their question of why she was crying. “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him.” She was focused on Jesus and only Jesus, even in her deepest grief. Turning away from them she saw a man and assumed He was the keeper of the garden where the tomb was located. Hoping that He might have some answers for her she said, “Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away.”
And then came the moment that changed everything. With all of the love and gentleness that He had for this faithful follower, He spoke her name. “Mary.” Through the tears that clouded her eyes, through the pain that tore at her heart, and through the grief that had her soul in turmoil pierced the voice of her Savior. There was only One that had ever said her name with such love. Only One had ever shown her such gentleness and kindness despite her past. “Rabboni!”
That moment is one of the dearest in all of Scripture to me. It speaks to me for several reasons. This moment was the very first time Jesus revealed Himself to someone after His resurrection. There were many other times in the days to follow, but He chose Mary to be the first. The Scriptures do not explain why He chose Mary, but I believe it was because of her great love and faithfulness to Him. He was the focus of her love and devotion. He had healed her physically from the grasp of the demons, and with His death and resurrection, He had healed her spiritually so that she might live with Him forever. Her cry of joy brings a smile to my face every time I think of it. I hope such moments are recorded for us in Heaven. I have played the scene over and over in my mind, but I would love to see it take place with my own eyes.
But there is more to this scene than this wonderful display of love and devotion. There is a little mystery too. In this case and in several other instances where Jesus appeared to people after His resurrection, His followers didn’t immediately recognize Him. Part of Mary’s lack of understanding, I believe, is due to her extreme grief. When you are really upset, not only is it hard to see or focus on anything, but things that are happening around you aren’t really registering in your mind. So I can understand why His first words to her didn’t register until He said her name. But I also believe that Jesus didn’t look quite the same. The extreme torture that He endured during the beating and execution would have severely mangled His body, but there is no mention of Him looking distorted except for the holes where the nails pierced His hands and feet, and where the spear pierced His side. When I think about that, I am reminded of the lyrics of the song “Heal the Wound” sung by Point of Grace. I think that if Mary Magdalene was alive today, this would be her favorite song.
I used to wish that I could rewrite history
I used to dream that each mistake could be erased
Then I could just pretend
I never knew the me back then
I used to pray that You would take this shame away
Hide all the evidence of who I’ve been
But it’s the memory of
The place You brought me from
That keeps me on my knees
And even though I’m free
Heal the wound but leave the scar
A reminder of how merciful You are
I believe that Jesus left the scars of the nails and the spear to remind us of how merciful He is. For all of eternity He will bear the scars of my sin. Just as the song says, there are many days that I have wished I could forget the things I’ve done, the attitudes I’ve had, the people I’ve wronged—but God leaves those memories in my mind to remind me of where He’s brought me from. I’m sure Mary felt the same way. I’ve sure she had evidences on her body of her former life that remained after Jesus healed her, but with every glance at her past, she was reminded of His great love and mercy toward her.
The scars that Jesus bears in His body to this very day prove to us the depths of His mercy and grace. He took our sin on His shoulders so that we could be healed in our bodies and souls. Without His sacrifice, healing is impossible. It was only through His death and resurrection that we have been given the power to believe on Him and be saved. Without His death, we could not live in victory over our past lives and without His death, we could not live in wholeness with Him for eternity.
When we are finally free from these bodies wrecked with sin, it is then that we will be completely made whole in Him. Our physical deaths are nothing but a release from the final chains that keep dragging us back to our sin. But if we have believed in Jesus as our Savior, “it is not death to die.” It’s just the beginning.
