Knowing God’s Will…

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Because I Said So...

There is always a lot of talk of unity within the church – unity in leadership, unity within individual ministries, even unity in Christianity in general. While unity is important, it is vital to remember that disagreement is not only acceptable, but should be expected.

We need only to look at Paul’s second missionary journey to get a prime example of this. In his first journey he, along with Barnabas, experienced success.  They were prophets and teachers. They fasted and prayed. Many were saved. The second journey begins differently. Not having any kind of miraculous direction, Paul suggested that they return to the places where they had previously preached the Word to check on them. Here is where the disagreement comes in. Barnabas wanted to take Mark, who had previously deserted them. Paul refused, so they parted ways. This may sound like a bad thing, but many good things came…

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Graced With Glory

I am excited to announce that my new site is now LIVE and ready! I will be continuing posts on there. This blog will remain for a few weeks until everything is completely transferred over, but for those of you who would still like to receive my posts, please go to http://www.gracedwithglory.org and subscribe to my RSS feed. If you follow me on Facebook or Twitter my posts will also go through on there.

 

Thank you so much for following this blog the last few years. It really has been a joy to share!

Wishing you all a beautiful and blessed 2014!

With expectation,

Brittany L. Ketter

THRIVE – 2014

 

I ask God to give me one word or picture for every year. This year I have a word and a phrase. My word God gave me this year (as seen above) is “Thrive”.

Two years ago I was told that, “His deep is crying out to your deep,” and I thought I knew what it meant, but I had not fully grasped what it was. Then last spring, it hit me. We walk in the depths that we allow God to heal in our lives and the depths that we allow His fullness to go. All last year the depths of my heart have been responding to the call from the depths of His, and level by level restoring the places in my deep that before I had not allowed to be touched. There is more for me yet, and His depths continue to cry out to mine…and in mine responding, there is a vastness and beauty in the deep that is created when our depths meet. It is in those deep places mixing with His that I can walk in the depths of who He is. 

With that being said, it gives me an outlook as to what my life looks like. Walking in the depths that I do, what then does my life for the gospel look like?  My life for the gospel looks like invading the low and dark places that only the broken and shamed are found. The victims, the abused, the prostitutes, the emotionally devastated, the hopeless, the runaway, the lost – the broken. The disillusioned who don’t know their worth after what they have been stripped down to what they see as nothing, but they know and have the thought that they were worth more than this.

My life for the gospel looks like loving the unloved and battered women and girls. To reach and hold the ones taken…the ones which innocence has been torn away. My life for the gospel looks like reaching into the dark places of a broken soul for the light the enemy has tried to steal from them. My life for the gospel brings a restoration to the broken and a recognition of redemption. 

2013 was a year of going deeper and searching the deep things of God. 2014 is my year to thrive. I cannot feed people from my roots – that is my faith, testimony and my experiences – but they can be fed by my fruit. And it is the fruit will reveal what is in the roots.

I cannot wait to see what God has in store for this next year. I am now just 5 days away from my new site launch date! On January 6th this blog will discontinue and my new site will take its place. My new site features the phrase that God has laid on my heart – Graced with Glory. I hope you continue to keep up with me there.

Wishing you the best in 2014. May your year be blessed and may you walk in the favor of God.

Do you have one word or a picture for 2014? Please share in the comments below!

 

Brittany L. Ketter

Adding to Your Faith

“5 But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, 6 to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, 7 to godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness love. 8 For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 2 Peter 1:5-8

 

I have been learning quite a bit about the faith walk. To start with, it’s a walk – a journey – and it requires going someplace with it and living it out. Faith is more than believing, it is doing what Jesus tells you to do. But in doing that, we are encouraged to, “…make every effort to add to your faith…” (2 Peter 1:5 NIV) followed by these things: virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness and love.

Verse 8 tells us why: “For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (2 Peter 1:8 NKJV)

Barren – the word here actually means useless, inactive, lazy.  And knowledge – full discernment and recognition. In other words, it is in adding these to your faith and walking them out that you will be effective.

How can you make an effort to add to your faith today?

When A Woman Finds Her Voice: Community and the Wall

I am privileged to be part of Jo Ann Fore’s launch team for her soon-to-be-released book entitled: “When A Woman Finds Her Voice”.  In addition, I also have the privilege of being part of Mary DeMuth’s launch team for her upcoming book, “The Wall Around Your Heart: How Jesus Heals You When Others Hurt You”. 

Both of these books, excellent reads, seem to go hand-in-hand. They compliment each other beautifully.

Community can be a tricky thing – at times, it can be what hurts you, other times it is what helps you. Something that I read in Everything by Mary DeMuth, is that at times, God asks we heal by walking into the very thing that wounded us. When we hurt, naturally we want to shrink back, nurse our wounds and keep to ourselves. This is exactly what the enemy wants is to keep us isolated. Community is so important!

In When A Woman Finds Her Voice, Jo Ann shares that, “God designed us for intimate community with each other. He wants us to do life together, sharing both our successes and our struggles.” 

You might be thinking that I’m crazy, (and maybe that we’re all crazy) with the thought that, “so you want me to walk right back into what hurt me?!” Yes and No. As Mary says in “The Wall Around Your Heart”: “Community does not always represent heartache. God uses people to heal us, to be agents of reconciliation. Finding true community can be amazing.” Years ago I was hurt by a group of people I saw as my friends. We shared many ups and downs and dreams. But eventually I was left in the dust. Then a few years ago when I went to school, I found a group of people that helped me to see that there is such a thing as true community. It was there that I found healing for what I thought was lost years prior. And even after leaving school and all of us going our separate ways, there is still a love that we found for each other. Many of us keep in touch, and although not all of us do, we still couldn’t have done without each other for those years.

Which brings me to something that Jo Ann wrote in, When A Woman Finds Her Voice – “Hiding won’t protect our hearts forever. No matter how high our walls, someone will eventually find us.” 

When you’re hurt by people, trust doesn’t come easy. But it is true. Eventually, someone will find you. Opening up in true community brings healing.

Check out Jo Anne’s book here: When A Woman Finds Her Voice

and Mary’s book here: The Wall Around Your Heart

You will be blessed!

#Opportunityisnowhere

Okay, be honest with me; how did you read that title. I dare you to vote:

Sometimes it seems like life dropped you off at the wrong street corner. You were supposed to be at Park Place or the Boardwalk and somehow ended up on Baltic Ave! Big difference there!

Everything that you do unto God is building a foundation of faith in your life. When you think you’ve missed your calling, be faithful where you are, pray and work unto the Lord in all you do and you will find that as long as you’re seeking Him, He is preparing you for what is to come. Seek HIM first!

Faith acts without delay. It doesn’t always make sense. But obedience (especially when you don’t understand) is the highest form of faith. God’s ways are higher than our ways. We cannot comprehend all He is doing or why things happen to be the way they are – but we can trust in His goodness to know that He will work all things together for good.

Sometimes I want to think I’m in the wrong place. I’m nowhere near the place I thought I would be by this time. It feels like there is nothing for me sometimes. Why would God bring me to such a place? Everything is seemingly at a stand-still. It is so tempting to pull back and just let things slide, wait on Him and do much of nothing. But I’m called to be faithful where I am even when I don’t understand why I happen to be here.

Opportunity is not nowhere, opportunity is NOW HERE. It is in this place I can take time to experience and truly know the heart of my glorious Lord. It is in this place that I can breathe deep and rest in who He is. It is in this place that I want to be found faithful living my life unto Him.

When you find yourself in that place, even when you think it seems mundane, be faithful – nothing done unto the Lord is ever in vain. Take heart when you feel like opportunities, promises, and the fullness of what you’re  called to nowhere, because it is NOW HERE. Faithfulness breeds fruitfulness. 

#BeFaithful

#FaithfulisFruitful

 

Dream Beyond the Dream

I used to think I was a dreamer.

I always say that, “to dream is to go beyond yourself…” – and there is truth in that. However, today I realized I’m not the dreamer I thought I was. I have dreams that go beyond my capability – beyond me and into a realm where the only chance of them succeeding is God alone putting His hand into them. Then my dream hit me – really an internship opportunity – it sounded like a dream. It was everything I love and everything I want to do all in one. I would have said “yes” in a heartbeat. God had other plans…or rather has other plans. I still would love to be saying “yes” to this. Traveling all over the world, dancing, pioneering a creative arts ministry in a church and raising awareness for human trafficking — that sounds most incredible to me — and that is only the highlights. There is more.

When I think that this is my dream and it practically fell into my lap all for God to say, “no” I wonder what He has in mind store.  Then I thought about it a bit more and realized if the dream I envisioned can practically fall in my lap by being offered to me by someone else, maybe I’m not dreaming big enough. Though this I realize that God wants me to expand my vision. Before I didn’t think I could possibly think any bigger than I was…now…now is another story. It is most incredible what can happen when you dream with God. It opens a whole new realm of thinking. 

But dreaming is meant to go beyond casting visions…you’re meant to live them out.

 

This week I have been challenged to dream with God and I am challenging you to do the same. If you can achieve your dream in your own strength you’re not dreaming – you are simply living a goal-oriented life.  We have lost the art of dreaming well. Let us go back to a dream-state with God. Nothing is impossible for Him.

What is your dream?

Rescued: 105 Kids Forced into Prostitution (FBI raids 76 Cities)

WASHINGTON (AP) —

Authorities rescued 105 children who were forced into prostitution and arrested 150 pimps and others in a three-day law enforcement sweep in 76 American cities, the FBI said Monday. The victims, almost all girls, range in age from 13-17.

The largest numbers of children rescued were in San Francisco, Detroit, Milwaukee, Denver and New Orleans. The campaign, known as Operation Cross Country, was conducted under the FBI’s Innocence Lost initiative.

“Child prostitution remains a persistent threat to children across the country,” Ron Hosko, assistant director of the bureau’s criminal investigative division, told a press conference.

The FBI said the campaign has resulted in rescuing 2,700 children since 2003.

The investigations and convictions of 1,350 have led to life imprisonment for 10 pimps and the seizure of more than $3.1 million in assets.

For the past decade, the FBI has been attacking the problem in partnership with a nonprofit group, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

John Ryan, the head of the center, called the problem “an escalating threat against America’s children.”

The Justice Department has estimated that nearly 450,000 children run away from home each year and that one-third of teens living on the street will be lured toward prostitution within 48 hours of leaving home.

Congress has introduced legislation that would require state law enforcement, foster care and child welfare programs to identify children lured into sex trafficking as victims of abuse and neglect eligible for the appropriate protections and services.

“In much of the country today if a girl is found in the custody of a so-called pimp, she is not considered to be a victim of abuse, and that’s just wrong and defies common sense,” Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said during a Senate Finance Committee hearing last month. Wyden co-sponsored the bill with Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio.

 

Published first at: http://www.wpxi.com/news/news/local/fbi-raids-76-cities-rescue-105-kids-forced-prostit/nY7B8/

 

#31DaysofFreedom

 

Love’s House

Haunted. That is exactly what Christian Dunn felt when he awoke in a cold sweat. He had been dreaming, but it was all too real. Could he even call it dreaming? It was a nightmare! After two weeks he still could not shake the look in those eyes.

Chris had been in India on a mission trip. Posing as customers, he and a friend infiltrated one of the brothels that was planned to be raided. Nothing could have prepared him for what he had seen there. Girls and women of all ages – some couldn’t have been more than eight years old were sitting there. All of them had a lifeless look in their eyes. The unmentionable horrors they had endured had killed their spirit. It broke his heart to see such injustice. He was sickened by the sight of it all. Just as much, he was disgusted at himself. To pose as the very thing he hated – a man that victimized these girls and women for cheap pleasure, made him sick to his stomach.

There was one girl in particular – she couldn’t have been more than ten years old. Dressed in her finery, her eyes were unlike the others. She must have been new to the brothel because there was still a spark in her eyes – there was still life in her eyes instead of the hollowness that was found in the others. The other girls did nothing more than glance at the men when they had come in. But this girl, she was different. Somehow she stood out amongst the others.

The women and girls did not have names. They had been stripped of their names when they were brought there. Whether they had been picked up or sold by their own families or had come on their own accord – they were not called by names, they each had a number – A number because they were not be human enough for a name for the unspeakable things that were done to them on a daily basis. Number 126 stared out at them. Her eyes held the truth of the shameful acts that she was forced into, but they also held onto a thread of hope that she could be rescued. She hadn’t given up yet. As she looked at Christian and Drew her eyes were hard as if to say, You won’t break me. After a moment or two though, they softened. The girl must have realized that they were not there to hurt her. They were not like other men. How she picked up on that, neither were sure. But in a moment the look in her eyes changed as if to beg them,help me! Save me!

 As Chris and Drew left the brothel, both had heavy spirits for the terrors that went on in that place. They felt disgusted at the fact that they even acted as customers for such a place. They prayed as they walked back to the camp. The night after tomorrow, there would be a raid on the brothel that they had visited. The women and girls would go free and be moved to a home which the team had just finished building weeks earlier.

Love’s House – it was called. Their theme verse was found in 1 Corinthians 13, “Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres. Love never fails.” In this home the rescued victims would be taught to read and write with the word of God. They also had a ministry to counsel the victims of the sex trafficking that they had lived through. Each woman would be taught a skill to live on. It was a nine month program and worth every penny put into it, every hour spent working on it, and every life that was changed by it.

Many who worked in the home were volunteers and several were women who had previously been brought through the program who had found such a miraculous healing in Jesus that penetrated deep into the soul. The once hardened, lifeless eyes were now bright and hopeful and filled with purpose. She always had a smile and was the first to share her testimony with the new girls.

Healing hadn’t come easy for her. Mitali’s very mother was the woman who ran the brothel and she gone and sold her off to another. After being sent away to another town in India, Mitali had to learn to adjust to life in the brothel. In her heart she daily dealt with the hurt that her mother had sold her into this life – her very own mother. She could not understand the rejection. The pain of it stung deep inside her heart. But one thing that Mitali had learned over the course of her short life and with her time in the brothels – you had to do whatever it took to survive. That meant numbing yourself from all experiences. You had to become dead because to live hurt. To live meant not only the pain, but shame and emotions too raw and too powerful to even put a name to. She thought she had reached that place of a rock-hardened soul – then she was rescued. It didn’t happen in a moment, but it was a process. But it happened . And it was in Love’s House that she discovered what true love really is – and WHO true love is. It was here she met Love Himself – Jesus.

#31DaysofFreedom

This is a fictional story containing very true events. This happens many times. Please get plugged in and help save these girls. Give them a chance to meet Love. 

 

Heart’s Cry: Something to Believe In

What is worth a fight?

What is your dream?  If you have a dream, you have to have the passion to go with it.

It has to be a part of who you are and what you grieve for and what you live for.

What dreams are part of your heart’s cry?

I know that for me, my heart cry is freedom – physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually. My passion is to bring the broken to restoration and to a recognition of redemption – to not be enslaved by who they were or where they have been, but to walk free and unhindered in the fullness of who God has called them to be. My passion is to raise up girls and women to be healthy, whole, and completely devoted to God and to His plans and purposes for their lives.

As this is my passion and the cry of my heart it is what I fight for daily. I have a dream and a vision that goes with this call. A dream to rescue and restore.

Now….what is your dream? Why?

How often does it drive you to your knees in prayer? How often does your heart grieve for those that your dream will reach?

What is your true heart’s cry?

#31DaysofFreedom