.......It was September 10, 1977 somewhere mid morning around the lunch hour. Two women dressing to go to Women’s Aglow meeting. One full of the Holy Spirit and walking in her calling, and one lost and undone, broken who’s life held nothing good except the two little boys laughing and romping in the house with their cousins. There life, like hers would never be the same after that day.
.......Oh, it was no accident that she would be in that place at that time. It was a divine appointment and HE was waiting. The few months leading up to this day was full of amazement for her but mixed with horror and fear and turmoil. Her third marriage was so very broken and she was physically and emotionally abused on a daily basis. Oh, she was raised in church and head all the stories of God and how HE intervened in the lives of people but she did not fully understand the love that God had for her, she would soon find that out.
.......She found herself quickly in trouble with the third marriage and somewhere in the night, alone and crying she broke. Standing by an open window with her fists clenched, she yelled out to the God that she could not see but somewhere in the depth of her soul knew He was listening. “Why in the world do you allow this to continue” she cried as she shook that fist in the face of God. She would soon learn that HE was listening and HE was moving closer to her.
.......Some would call it coincidence but she will tell you today that it was divine intervention. Some would call it happenstance, she will tell you that it was Holy and without hesitation.
.......Through a process of events she found herself being moved to Anadarko Oklahoma in the middle of nowhere except that she did have a cousin living there. Tisha and Harold. Because of her troubled life she did not have close contact with her family much, some due to the shame that she felt and just no desire to live more than from day to day and energy for something else was too much to bear.
.......The Todd family, Tisha and Harold had three children of their own and living in a modest little home with just three bedrooms. They embraced that woman with her two sons and husband with the love and the spirit of giving that you would expect from these people. It would prove to be the best of times and the worst of times.
.......Tisha Todd that morning while in the shower heard from the Lord. As I remember it HE spoke and said “Today is Denise’s day” She will correct me if I am wrong but I am sure that was the spoken word that day. I remember she was so excited and told her husband Harold but she spoke nothing to me for fear that I would decide to stay home and not attend this women’s ministry. But attend I did.
.......That was 31 years ago today September 10. It has not been a walk in the park since that day and the trials would prove to be more than I could have even imagined.
.......I worked in the shop most of the day yesterday and found myself in tears most of the day. Each year at this time the Lord always bring back to my mind and my remembrance of that day. As I write this for you today I find myself in tears. It is as real today as it was that day in that room on a second floor of a small café. His presence is as real to me today as it was the instant that my spirit man was born again. It is as real to me today as I sit and pen these words for you as it were in the instant after all things became new in my life.
.......We look for miracles, we read about the miracles in the New Testament. We hear about the blind eye being opened and the lame walking. We hear about the miracles in other places and we watch for those miracles in our own lives. What we fail to understand that for a life that is broken and undone to be made new and a spirit that is dead being made alive is nothing short of a miracle.
.......Some people have said that the age of miracles is over……….. I need to disagree……..
.......He took a broken heart and made it new…….. He took hate from my heart that day that was embedded into my very soul……. How did HE do that? HE walked up to me and breathed the breath of life into my spirit and I came alive. HE gave me a new name and wrote my name in the Lamb’s book of life. HE sat me in heavenly places and moved me from death to life. I have entered into my eternity and I will never die……… How did HE do that?
.......What HE did that day is nothing short of raising the dead and making the blind eye see….. I am nothing short of a miracle. You are nothing short of a miracle! Remember that
