Living My Faith Out Loud

I can’t believe that in 57 days I will be Mrs. Rachel Bowers! It seems like I have been waiting my whole life for Ken and in God’s goodness and mercy, He brought this incredible man into my life. 
7 1/2 years ago, I gave my life to Christ and haven’t looked back since. It was the best decision I have ever made and not only do I get to spend eternity with the Lord, I get to walk out my faith as a brand new creation in Christ. All things in my past are just that, in my past. I have been washed white as snow and have been made righteous not on my own merit, but because of the love, mercy and sacrifice of the One who gave His life up for me. To know that someone has taken all my guilt, shame, hurts, disappointments, sadness, loneliness, heartache and pain just because He loves me so much is astounding.  The Savior of the World, Creator of all things, ruler of everything, giving up everything for me. It blows my mind to know that before the Creation of the world, God chose me and knew that on March 27, 2009, I would be marrying Ken.  Ken and I have gone through our share of trials and suffering and to know that God had this planned all along is amazing.

I would never choose to live the life I lived before I met Christ. I made alot of mistakes and carried around so much guilt and shame and Christ has taken all that away from me. I am a new creation. I will walk down the aisle on my wedding day in a beautiful white gown because in Christ, I am a virgin. Since giving my life to Christ, I have kept myself pure and God has honored that.  He makes all things beautiful in His time. Ken and I have had such different pasts that it’s amazing that the Lord would bring us together. Ken was saved at a young age and although he didn’t have a perfect life, it was pretty good. He was married for 29 years to his high school sweetheart and the  last 10 years of her life, she fought and finally lost her battle with cancer. The last year of her life was filled with so much physical suffering, I know it had to be difficult to watch.  I can’t help but feel like she prayed specifically for me, which is an incredible sacrifice and must have been one of the most difficult of her prayers.  They had 3 of the most amazing kids and they are very close to each other. You can’t go through all that they did and not come out changed. They chose to love the Lord through all that and not become bitter or angry and their lives show the fruit of their faithfulness.  I am so blessed to be marrying into this incredible family and I am so looking foward to what the Lord will do. I am the luckiest girl in the world and am marrying God’s perfect man for me.

What an incredible year last year was! The Lord blessed me even more than the year before. It’s amazing to me that this same time last year, the Lord really impressed upon me that 2008 was going to be my year. I remember walking around work and church and saying to everyone I came in contact with, “This is going to be my year!” I may actually have bordered on the obnoxious! I had no idea what the Lord would do but I just knew without a doubt that it was going to be my best year since meeting the Lord.

Last year was a year of some hard decisions and I think the 3 most difficult ones were to not only resign my position on staff at my church but to also leave it and find a new one. I went back to Covenant Life (where I had attended for a few months in ‘02) and I just felt so at home, it was incredible. I am so grateful to the Lord and many people’s guidance who challenged me to go there.  It felt like I had been there my whole life. It was difficult to leave all my coworkers who were also my closest friends and my church all at one time. I realized that my friends will always be my friends no matter what church we may be at. We are all part of the Body of Christ, no matter where we worship.

In March last year, I started working at a Christian real estate company where I used to work prior to working for the church. I have a different position but it was great going back because I knew most of the people there. It was an easy transition and I am glad the Lord guided me. It’s also where I fell madly in love with my fiance, Ken. The Lord has gone before us every step of the way in our relationship and it is amazing to think that before the foundations of the world was laid, the Lord knew that He would bring us together!

The other really difficult decision I made was to not go back to Africa. I was supposed to go to Uganda in September and after much prayer and seeking counsel, I knew I needed to cancel it. I am a missions junkie and I absolutely love sharing the Gospel and have done missions just about every year since becoming a Christian but the older I get, the harder it is to bounce back afterwards! When I went to South Africa it took 18 hours on the airplane to come back and it almost killed me! It’s also just physically and emotionally hard.   

One of the prayers I have this year is to start blogging again on a regular basis. It may have to wait though until after the wedding which will be March 27. 76 days!!!! Yeah!!! I am working on our wedding website and will post a link to it soon.