I STAND AMAZED: Part 1 - Debbie Harvey

As a child growing up in the home of a Southern Baptist pastor I got a chance to learn a lot of the old time inspiring hymns of the faith.  One of those hymns was called:  I Stand Amazed In The Presence.  The first verse of this wonderful song goes like this:

"I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene and wonder how He could love me a sinner condemned unclean. Oh how marvelous, oh how wonderful and my song shall ever be. Oh how marvelous, oh how wonderful is my savior's love for me."  

The God Who Makes Beautiful Sunsets Is The Same God

Who Transforms Sinners Into Something Amazing And Then Uses Them To Bring Himself Glory!

When we think of a holy and righteous God unconditionally loving us and paying the price for our redemption and forgiveness of sin through his perfect son's death while we were still sinners I stand in utter amazement!  It leaves me speechless and dumbfounded.  How's it possible that a holy and righteous God can take a bunch of wretched sinners and make them his treasure?  AMAZING! That's all I can say: AMAZING!

But for me the amazement doesn't stop there!  I am continually amazed with this one true living God because He not only saved us but he now employs us!  This Living God saves us, transforms us and then employs us to go out and perform the most important work of all the ages.  He commissions us to go back out into this very dark world to shine His light and lead others to experience His amazing grace and unconditional love.

REALLY?  GOD REALLY ENTRUSTS HIS MOST IMPORTANT MESSAGE TO A BUNCH OF ORDINARY PEOPLE, WHO WERE ONCE WRETCHES, TO BE HIS DELIVERY SYSTEM TO THE REST OF THE WORLD?  I MEAN REALLY?

Absolutely!  And that is why today I still stand amazed.  I stand amazed because I see all the different kinds of ordinary people who were once slaves to sin; once hopeless and helpless; but now transformed sharing the glory of God to all who will listen.  And they are doing an absolutely amazing job at it!   IT'S SIMPLY AMAZING!

So this is the first post of a blog series that I'm calling:  I STAND AMAZED.  It is a series where I highlight different Ordinary Christians that God has transformed and now uses to shine His light in their part of this dark world.  I write it with the hopes that it will be encouraging and empowering to you, another ordinary christian, to have faith in God that He can and will use you if you are willing to step out and begin to shine the light of Christ into your nighborhood.  With that in mind let me introduce you to:

Debbie Harvey

I first met Debbie about 15 years ago when I had started a new church called Church In The Desert in Tucson, AZ.  Debbie had received a mailer that our church sent out inviting people to come to our first Easter Service.  She came and eventually starting bringing her father, mother, husband and son.  Debbie had committed her life to Christ as an older child, as an adult she became an RN, an officer for the PTA at her son's school, taught Sunday School and helped out in many other areas of the community.  Oh yeah she was also a drug addict and was able to hide it very well.  Even though she had given her life over to Jesus as an older child the choices she made in her teenage years made her a slave to drugs that followed her into adult life.  Debbie had learned how to hide it and control it; at least for awhile but eventually it took control of her and everything she had was taken away.  Her home, her children, her profession, her marriage, her freedom were all taken away.  Sin had ripped her off of everything that was dear to her.  She was as low as she could get when she discovered the transformation power the the Living God.  It was while she was in a jail cell and decided to call out to the only one would listen.  She called out to God.  Listen to her story in her own words.

Debbie's Story

Since God's amazing transformation in her life I have personally seen God restore to Debbie what sin took away.  Her marriage has been restored and her husband is now a believer; she got her kids back from CPS; she got her home back; she got her freedom back; as of yet she has not gotten back her nursing license but God has given her an amazing job working for a national christian radio station called Family Life Radio.   For the longest time her position at Family Life Radio was to be the Call-In Prayer Coordinator.  As people listened to the radio programs they would be encouraged to call in if they had any prayer requests.  Debbie was responsible for developing a team of volunteer prayer warriors who would intercede to our Heavenly Father for those who called in with prayer concerns.  God has since given her a promotion to a full-time position. She is also actively sharing her faith and learning how to become a reproducing disciple maker.  Her young daughter is a Pop Warner Cheerleader and Debbie has been talking to the other mothers about starting a Bible Study group while their daughter practice.  

Here is the point that I am trying to make!  God can do anything, through anybody and He loves to use those that the world might peg as failures and transform them so that He then can employ them to shine His light into their part of this Spiritually Dark World.

If God can use Debbie - He can use you too.