Why f.o.r.g.i.v.e.n.???

When I finally decided I was going to start "blogging," I sat down at the computer to do so without realizing I had not given any thought to what I would name my blog. I carefully started tossing around some ideas over the next couple days, because I really wanted the title to be meaningful and fully capture who "Jennifer Doerr" is and what she is about. I finally came up with the acronym of f.o.r.g.i.v.e.n., which stands for free of restraints, gaining immeasureable victories while elevating His name (look to the upper right side of this page), and of course "His name" would be none other than the mighty name of Jesus!

I don't want to make it seem like my life was not DRASTICALLY changed the day I accepted Jesus into my heart, because it was. I had allowed Jesus to take my heart of stone and replace it with a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 11:19). My "heart transplant" caused me to think differently, speak differently and act differently. But the fact still remained that I was a new person who still found myself stumbling around, more times than I would like to admit, tripping over the wreckage that I had created in my "former life." I knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that Jesus was more than capable of cleaning up my mess, but at times, that still didn't make it easy.

I was reminded of a sermon that I heard when I was a brand new Christian about Jesus telling Lazarus to take off his grave clothes. The story of Lazarus comes from the 11th chapter of John.

Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. "Take away the stone," he said.

"But Lord," said Martha, the sister of the dead man, "by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there for four days."

Then Jesus said, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?"

So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, "Father, I thank you that you always hear me, but I say this for benefit of the people standing here, that they believe may that you sent me."

When he had said this, Jesus called out in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out! The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.

Jesus said to them, "Take off the grave clothes and let him go."

Pay special attention to the very last thing that Jesus says. After He raised Lazarus from the dead, His command was to take off the grave clothes. When we become Christians, we receive new life through Jesus. Our spirits are no longer dead, but alive, just like Lazarus. After we become reborn through the spirit, God never intends for us to stop in our tracks and experience life with Jesus while we are still blinded and bound, but to move forward and "take off the grave clothes," every last bit of them. From what I understand, in the time of Jesus, in preparation for burial, dead bodies were wrapped, and bound in "grave clothes." Symbolically speaking, I believe our grave clothes are our fleshly desires, the very things that drove us and set the course for our lives before we became followers of the truth. Being in "bondage" to anything, most certainly, hinders a believer from embracing a relationship with Jesus to the fullest extent.

Little by little, I allowed the Lord to remove my grave clothes, and now I feel so free! Sometimes I want to shout from the mountaintops, because I am free, free of restraints, or bondage. There was no worse feeling to know that, through Jesus, I had the gift of freedom, yet I was still stumbling, unable to fully take hold of all that I knew God had for me. Most of all, I carried extreme guilt because I knew I was unable to serve Him with all that I was. It is extremely hard, if not impossible to be about Kingdom service with grave clothes covering your eyes and binding your hands and feet.

In further explanation of f.o.r.g.i.v.e.n., now that I am free of restraints, I can wholeheartedly be devoted to serving Him and be about His business in all aspects of my life. When we, as Christians, give it all to Him, and elevate His name through obeying Him and serving Him, it is impossible for us not to gain immeasurable victories for his kingdom.

I know many of you have already seen it, either in person or from another link, but I want to mention the impact that this "skit" that our church performed a few weeks ago had on my heart. I thought it was beautifully done. Everyone involved did a magnificent job. It was so touching to see the portrayal of the battle that I knew Christ won for me to free me from the bondage in which I was entangled. Satan can be so sneaky as he lures us away from Jesus with such dangerous and inevitably empty promises, only to trap us in his snare of hopelessness and fear. But the story never has to end there, because when we call out upon the name of Jesus, he rescues us!

I invite anyone who has not seen the skit to watch it by clicking on the image below. The song is called "Everything" and the artist is Lifehouse. (It's not very long- only a few minutes.) You will be blessed!