SWYC 2015: Christ Our Righteousness

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

GYC Southwest

Morning Devotional

Virna Santos

Victory in Jesus: Why?

Victory in Jesus: Temptation, Where Does It Come From?

Victory in Jesus: Living Victoriously

I'm glad we're here again together this morning.

The Lord brought me back to San Francisco after I was rebaptized in 2009 with my sister.

And he kept me away from San Francisco for about 3 years.

You see, I had become a political activist for the LGBTQ community for nearly 20 years in San Francisco.

And I was living my life out loud and proud.

And after I had adopted my daughter, my ex-partner, who gave birth to our daughter at our home, a law had passed, the AB 25 law, which afforded same-sex couples to adopt each other's children as their own.

And so under that particular law, apparently it was reported that I was the first to have filed for adoption under that law in the state of California.

And so NBC News got wind of that and the newspapers and I was all over the place.

And as I had shared with you, the conviction that the Lord brought upon my heart when I started to search for God, and I had no, at first, I had no intention of changing anything about who I was and who I thought I was born to be.

And so the Lord worked it out in a way that, after I was rebaptized, along with my sister in 2009, He moved very swiftly.

We signed up for ARISE cross-training, and that's where we met JR and many other brothers and sisters who are here today.

And after that, he had me move away from San Francisco.

You see, sometimes I realize that the gravity of sin is, will equate sometimes to how God will extract us from that environment.

And so for 3 and a half years I was away from San Francisco Bible working, volunteering, and away from the LGBTQ community specifically for almost 3 and a half years.

And just this year, earlier this year, the Lord made a way and called me back.

And I suddenly recalled the story of Moses, where God told Moses, go back and get my people.

And it was a very humbling experience to think that God wanted me to go back to San Francisco to get his people and reconnect with friends that I love so dearly and I pray would be in heaven with me and all of us that on that glorious day.

But I was also praying to God for a job that will afford me time to take off and not worry about my finances or my rent and looking for a place.

Well, it so happened that from certain circumstances, which I will share with you tomorrow, that my best friend and who's been my best friend for almost 20 years, and her partner as well, asked me to live with her mom in San Francisco, and to be a companion and to assist her mom with day-to-day stuff, reminding her for her medicine and when to eat on time.

And I said, I would love to help you guys out.

And She goes, well, you know, because mother knows you already, I think it will be a really good situation for her and we'll just charge you real cheap rent.

And I'm thinking, Lord, let it be like just maybe $500 a month?

And she says something and she goes, yeah, we're thinking of just asking if you could pay $200 a month.

And then she said, then she said, would you mind paying maybe just contributing like 50, 40, 50 bucks a month towards the gas and electric.

I said, I'm going to have to think about that.

No, no, of course, of course, that's fine.

Because I was asking God, God, I feel this pull towards San Francisco.

Being in San Francisco will make me closer to my daughter.

Maybe about 10 minutes away versus 2 and a half hours away.

Her mother and I, her birth mother and I, we split up actually when she was only 10 months old.

And the Lord has been leading and guiding and repairing our co-parenting relationship as well.

At the time I was rebaptized with my sister, my ex-partner legally married another woman.

And so this is where my daughter resides.

She has her birth mother, her stepmother, and her brother, who's 4 years old, because my ex-partner and her wife, also artificially inseminated with another sperm donor and got pregnant.

And the Lord led at 1 point that I had to surrender my daughter, not necessarily to them, but to him.

I caught this little girl with her eyes wide open, and I'll never forget that day.

And I've always been there for her, and she calls me mama.

Currently at this time I get her 1 weekend a month and 1 month in the summer.

And I recall 1 time, I think I'm kind of diverting here because I told you I was going to, I was going to, I got a job, so I'll get to that in a minute.

Shortly after my rebaptism, I was with my daughter.

At that time when I got rebaptized, when she was 7, God's number.

My daughter, 7 years old, she was at the coffee table, coloring in the coloring book.

And I was having that experience of Jesus asking me, Vierna, do you love me?

And my gaze went over to my daughter, and I felt the Lord tell me, there's something you need to do.

And so I called my daughter on my knee, to sit on my knee, And I held her so preciously, and she's just looking at me, playing with my hair, and I said, baby girl, you having a nice Sabbath?

And I said, sweetheart, I know you probably don't, won't understand this, but I need to apologize to you about something.

And I'm probably going to have to apologize to you sometime again when you get older." And I said to her, I said, sweetheart, I'm really sorry, she don't have a dad.

And it's a reminder to me, every Father's Day, she has no 1 to give a Happy Father's Day card to.

And I apologized to her, she said, with the biggest smile on her face, mind you before this time I had started taking my daughter with me to church every Sabbath.

And during that time my custody with her was every week.

And so every other Sabbath, she was with me at church.

And she smiled so big, and she said, Mama, don't cry, Mama.

I held her for the longest time and her poor little hands rubbing my back, comforting me, my daughter comforting me.

I know God has a special plan for her And she loves the Lord.

I took her to camp meeting 1 summer, and she came so excitedly to me.

She had been going to the early teen tent, the junior tent, some tent for the kids.

And this was at Central California Conference Camp Meeting.

But when she told me that, my heart fell out, and I practically fell flat on my bottom, because the first thing that entered my mind was, what would your other mom say?

Well, God has worked it out in a way that, my daughter did not get baptized that year, And we're waiting on the Lord.

My daughter's learning to wait on the Lord at such a young age.

And she's learning the work of faith in her own life.

Back to Menu

Series

Morning Devotional

Victory in Jesus: Temptation, Where Does It Come From?

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

What Did You Expect?

49m

Morning Devotional

Why Are We Here?

29m

Raw

38m

The Disciples Who Gave Up Everything

33m

Drowning In the Will of the Almighty

34m

The Beatitudes

Blessed Are They that Mourn

34m

God’s Love Letters

1h 6m

Hebrews 11- Faith

15 The Faith of Rahab

34m

The Living One

47m

Put Your Sword in its Place

45m

His Truth Is Marching On

49m

Unlocking the Mysteries of the Sanctuary

16 The Mark of the Beast and the Seal of God

1h 14m

Sound Doctrine