This post was written by my special guest, Julie Bonn Blank. I believe her story will inspire and encourage you. Her book, Innocent Lives: Guardians of Grace, reveals the horror of sex trafficking. It is fiction and it ends well. Here is some of Julie's story.
There’s no argument that life can be difficult. And although Jesus is clear in His messages to us that He has overcome the world and to not grow weary in doing good, the human-ness in us sometimes get the best of us. It did for me, anyway. Anxiety, discouragement, and fear sometimes took hold in my heart. And the more I heard, “God is love. Fear is not from Him. Perfect love casts out fear,” the more anxious I sometimes got!
What was wrong with me? Why couldn’t I rest in Him? My life was once a tattered mess. Not only did I make multiple wrong and sinful decisions, but I had three abusive relationships. One of these was a 17-year marriage that ended after a gun incident when the kids and I couldn’t leave the house for days. Despite a divorce thereafter, the abuse continued until God said “enough” and took my former husband Home. Yes, He released me from my abuse because I had been unable to fully do so. I had even moved back into the same house to help take care of him after the divorce. I returned to abuse time after time because there was a part of ME that needed healing, and my very spirit needed to learn to place my value solely on God versus on the endorphins that I received from rescuing and helping others.
If you have struggles like I did, if you have pain, grief, a difficult marriage, addiction, divorce, the loss of hope, medical issues, trauma - I have a message for you: God can’t wait for you to come Home. Our Lord is excited to have all His children gathered and living a life of light and praise with Him. How do I know?
I have suffered from allergies for many years although they’ve escalated in the past couple of years. And in August of this year, Satan tried to take me out. Yup. I had an allergic reaction with symptoms I have never had before. God prodded me several times to treat it as an allergy anyway and so I did, finally also using my Epipen in addition to the oral meds. I still had to call 911 because God told me to do so (and also told me to not go to sleep when I kept laying on the couch!). And then in an ambulance in my cul-de-sac, I stopped fainting and went to heaven instead. I had just finished mumbling (because my mouth felt full of cotton) to the EMTS that I work for a Christian nonprofit that helps domestic abuse survivors when I left and instead of fade-to-black it was popping gold!
I saw amazing and beautiful sights. But more importantly, I felt Jesus next to me (He wouldn’t let me look at Him). And He spoke to me. “Not now. Go. There is still so much work to be done.” As soon as he said “Go,” He or someone carried me as I was shooting backward at a million miles per hour. Three seconds later (before He was even done with His sentence), I opened my eyes in the ambulance. Yes, as I was opening them, I heard the end of the sentence, “…so much more to do,” like it was a megaphone in my ear.
I was shocked that no one else seemed to have heard a thing. It was so LOUD. The EMT was pushing more Epi and steroids at this point and telling the driver to get a move on. A couple of days later, my primary physician’s office confirmed that I had indeed flat-lined while in the ambulance.
Obviously, we all still have work to do and your help is needed too. But here is the thing my friends, as much as we say there is no sadness in heaven, Jesus can choose to feel what He feels. It was a sad, yet powerful voice He used with me. He wanted to keep me there. He loves me so much, He wanted me there! And He knew my name. His tone and verbal connotation said it all: “I want you Home, dear daughter. I can’t wait to celebrate YOU.” He poured this into me during our short visit. He feels the same about you.
As a parent, this makes complete sense to me. Who doesn’t want all of their kiddos in the same room to joyfully connect? But, while we are here, He wants us to keep being worker-bees. The earth isn’t ready to lose us yet. The people here need us. But He loves you so deeply that He can’t wait, in His perfect timing, to have you Home.
This is a photo of Julie and her husband Bill. The beach photo is Julie's favorite beach, Julie is the Women’s Ministry and Educational Director for ARMS/Abuse Recovery Ministry Services. ARMS has free Her Journey abuse recovery groups for ladies (ages 14+) nationwide and internationally. Julie also is an author, writer and certified domestic violence advocate with hundreds of hours of training in abuse, intervention and recovery. Learn more about Julie on her website. The book cover is the first in her series about human trafficking. Innocent Lives can be purchased at Amazon here.
The abuse organization, ARMS (Abuse Recovery Ministry Services) saved Julie's life 12 years ago. God used their free Her Journey program to save her life. After working on her healing, Julie became a volunteer leader and did their marketing. Six years ago, Julie came on staff as their Women's Ministry and Educational Director.
Her Journey is a free program, once a week for 15 weeks that is curriculum based. It therefore makes an amazing accompaniment to many of the paid programs out there. Occasionally, they have ladies who need more than HJ and then they often refer them to other healing programs, as well as coaching/counseling. Here is a page on Julie's website that has many appearances listed. https://www.juliebonnblank.com/speaking/
Julie Bonn Blank
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