Positively Good Productions
Making a positively good difference in our lives
God can work through our pain, suffering, and tragedies
to accomplish His purposes in our lives.
No matter what our circumstances are...
God's purposes overrides everything!
Ultimately, God is in control. He allows the good and bad
things in life, and we can trust Him to work all things
together for good in the lives of those who love Him.
When God allows us into positions of great trial...
He compensates by larger gifts of grace.
It is a dangerous thing to scheme against others...
especially when a good person is the object of the attack.
God is all-knowing, all-wise, and
all-powerful.
Those who love God can trust God's grace, mercy,
goodness, and power. No matter who, what, when, or
where... God's Master Plan will work out as God desires,
and no devil in hell can stop, rock, or slow down
God's plan.
Satan will set a trap for us, meaning it for our harm and
destruction. But when God gets involved, He takes that
thing that Satan meant to use to destroy us and turns it so
that it actually works for our good instead.
To an extraordinary and humbling
extent, who we are as Believers can be
determined by events that happened to
us.
God wants us to be equipped and confident in knowing
that His tender mercies, amazing grace, and forgiveness
can take away the agonizing burdens of our past shame,
guilt, condemning thoughts, and/or fears.
God, in His loving-kindness has bottled every tear we
have ever shed. He has seen every need. He has known
our every thought, and He loves us!
God has a way of orchestrating a series of unlikely events
that will work together for our good. God is well aware of
what is going on behind the enemy lines and He knows
exactly what it will take for us to become His mighty
warriors.
God will not abandon His people...
even at our weakest, darkest, and
worst.
God does not want us to be afraid, nervous, worried or
imprisoned by our present or past. Sometimes, God will
allow us to have a breakdown in order to have a
breakthrough.
“And we know that in all things
God works for the good of those who love Him,
who have been called according to His purpose.”
One of the most potentially frightening aspects of being a
Believer is knowing that when we put our trust in God,
all of Hell breaks out against us intending evil upon our
lives. And, yet what overrides fear and evil is knowing
that, God is God and no matter what comes, God is the
Master of all... even the wind and waves obey God. God
takes what was intended for evil against us and flips the
script for our good.
This website was born out of grief,
loss, bereavement, false accusations,
rejection, and betrayal disguised as
gestures of friendship and kinship.
In other words...
we experienced harsh labor pains along with
"The Judas kiss."
Judas was one of the original twelve disciples who
followed and was taught by Jesus. Being in Jesus’ “Inner
circle,” Judas had a closer relationship to Jesus
than most people during His ministry.
Often, foes disguise themselves as
friends.
Evil often wears a mask to conceal its true purpose.
Satan possessed Judas in hopes of
using him to destroy Jesus’ ministry
and getting Jesus out of the way. Satan
used a kiss... a sign of affection... to
unleash a surge of hatred.
Judas betrayed Jesus to the authorities. The pre-arranged
signal was that the person Judas kissed was to be arrested
and taken away to be crucified.
(Mark 14:44)
Judas used such an intimate expression of love and respect
to betray Jesus. For a student who had great respect for his
teacher, a kiss fell well within the healthy expression of
honor.
When Jesus was betrayed with a Judas kiss, He identified
with the troubles of David, who wrote, “If an enemy were
insulting me, I could endure it; if a foe were rising against
me, I could hide. But it is you, a man like myself, my
companion, my close friend, with whom I once enjoyed
sweet fellowship at the house of God, as we walked about
among the worshipers”
(Psalm 55:12–14).
Job’s emotional pain also foreshadowed Jesus’ sorrow:
“Those I love have turned against me”
(Job 19:19).
Judas was “seized with remorse” (Matthew 27:3) over
what he had done. He threw the silver back into the
temple and, out of guilt, went away and hanged himself.
(Matthew 27:5).
As we all know...
betrayal can be devastatingly piercing
to our hearts and souls... especially
when the experience is with someone
we care about or deeply love.
We have come to realize... there can be no deeper hurt or
insult than when one is betrayed and wounded by the very
ones who professed to be a true, tried, and trusted sister,
brother, or friend.
Nothing hurts more than being disappointed and betrayed
by those we thought would never hurt us... especially...
during our weakest season of pain and loss.
It is difficult enough when one is attacked and conspired
against by the enemy, but when the fiery arrows come
from those whom we have loved, looked up to, and
trusted...the devastation and grief becomes magnified.
These words spoken by Jesus over 2,000 years ago... are
very relevant for many believers in the world today.
My pain and loss, like most others, has been tremendous,
but we can rest assured those experiences are not in vain.
I believe, God is using the pain and loss to draw us all into
a faith relationship with Himself.
Therefore we will boast all the more
gladly about our weaknesses,
so that God’s power
may rest on us.
That is why we delight, by the grace of God, in
weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, and
in difficulties.
For when we are weak, then
we are strong.
2 Corinthians 12:7-10
We believe God allows us to go through trials,
tribulations, and the crucibles of life
to refine us so that we might grow, mature,
build, and solidify our faith and character...
as we learn to trust and depend on
God and God alone.
We believe suffering is not only leading us to perfection
of character, but it is also allowing us to have a closer,
more intimate, relationship with God.
We know that God never allows any of us to go through
more than we can handle, and we know that God will not
allow us to be tested beyond our ability to endure the test.
We have no right to believe that God will do or allow
anything to hurt or hinder our Spiritual growth. We don't
believe suffering is indicative of God's disfavor, but of
God's favor.
We believe God permits sorrow, grief, tears, and
heartaches. We believe that life's difficulties and troubles
are not intended to impede our progress, but to catapult us
to greater heights... allowing us to press past our
difficulties, focus on and embrace the life lessons learned,
and get in harmony with God's Will... even when we don't
understand it.
We know God can do things far beyond our puny
comprehension.
We believe God is able to reach
down and touch the point of our
greatest need.
Through our upclose and very personal knowledge,
observation, and experiences...
we know God is able
to make all things right.
Joseph's brothers treated him very cruelly
and sold him into slavery causing Joseph to experience
a chain of painful, but divinely purposed events.
God caused all things to work together for Joseph's good
and bountifully blessed Joseph
in the land of his afflictions.
We know that no matter how deep the pit...
God is able to divinely orchestrate
the most painful events in our lives...
into the most beautiful and amazing experiences
we could ever hope for.
According to Scripture,
some of the greatest saints in the Bible
had to face severe adversity.
We believe God’s purpose, for our lives,
is sometimes hidden in our pain.
God's shaping, molding,
and transformation process
can be a very painful process at times;
however, some people have made their greatest strides
in spiritual development and personal growth
in the midst of their pain and suffering.
God, Our Maker, our Master
Gardener, and Sculptor
has a way of grooming, pruning, cutting, burning, filing,
purifying and expelling anything that is not of Him.
God buffs, polishes, molds, shapes and refines our
affections and desires so that as the good is implanted in us
we can bloom, thrive, and totally be assured that we can
rely on Him, the most remarkably powerful influence we
can know.
Through the seminary of affliction, we believe,
God grooms, prunes, molds, and shapes us
in ways we would have never known...
had we been left in the world
floating on our worldly egos.
We believe one can learn, grow, know, and do better
after going through the, humbling, seminary of affliction.
This process of perfecting us is not a painless task,
but it is what we need so that we might bloom,
flourish, and reflect God in every facet of our lives.
We have seen, up close and very personally,
that God is able to use our trials, tests, and tribulations
to prepare us for greater callings.
We believe tests and trials are inevitable,
and are generally temporary,
but they have a purpose, a Divine purpose
which, eventually, becomes profoundly beneficial
for others and ourselves.
We believe God is able to turn our painful experiences...
into beautiful and powerful purposes!
We also believe God is able to
turn our times of difficulty and pain
into times of sublime expression!
We know the power of God can be demonstrated
in our trials, tribulations, conflicts and adversities
and God's glory can be shown through us.
May we use our personal trials, tribulations,
conflicts and adversities
as a spring board to become much better people.
We have come to realize that the overcoming
is never the overcoming
of the one or ones who troubled us,
but the overcoming of the weaknesses
and corrections needed in our own nature...
aroused by such a one.
We believe during times of crisis
we gain insight into certain areas of suffering
that helps us to empathize and encourage others
when others are faced with similar tests.
As gold is proved in the fire and separated from impurities,
and as steel is strengthened in the smelting furnace,
so our faith can only be purified
by perseverance under pressure,
and can only be strengthened
when we learn to rely on God in times of crisis.
The "Fiery trials of life", as Peter refers to them
(1Peter 4:12),
also serve to refine our faith.
We believe the qualities of character and righteousness
are forged in the furnace of affliction to teach us,
prepare us, equip, perfect, and purify us
for greater works.
We are God's artistry... His diamonds in the rough.
Within each person are diamond-like qualities...
waiting to be mined.
The beauty of diamonds come from the extreme pressure
that the refining process takes it through.
The same holds true for each of us.
Just as the diamond...
our beauty and worth comes from
the extreme pressures that trials and tribulations bring.
We are comforted in knowing that God's Touch
still has that same ancient Power to part
our Red Sea experiences.
Scripture has reminded us...
the same ancient Power is promised to help us, today.
That same ancient Power is able to turn those dry,
barren desert experiences, in our lives, into pools of water.
That same ancient touch...
lovingly brings us through the
rough terrain of our wilderness seasons.
For everything that was written in the past
was written to teach us,
so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures
and the encouragement they provide
we might have hope.
Romans 15:4
We have a deep appreciation for each dry,
barren desert experience.
We are grateful to God that He has allowed
the low points in our lives to unfold.
Most of us can look back on our seasons of pain
and see that we have become stronger because of them.
God's training and teaching time
has taught us well.
We count these lessons fashioned of
difficulties, trials, tests, wounds, healing, joy, and sorrow
simply as the necessary rungs in the ladder.
We realize the lessons we've learned,
through our many trials, tests, and tribulations...
could not have been learned any other way.
We have learned from our life experiences
that God is sufficient to deliver us from any trial in life.
No matter how much circumstances
may have weighed in...
we know that with God charting our course...
our scars, loss, and disappointments
are being perfected.
Through our many trials, tests, and tribulations...
we are, now, realizing and embracing
a deeper understanding of our purpose, ourselves,
and our God.
We know that "Man proposes, but God disposes."
"What the devil meant for evil,
God intended for good."
I encourage you not to waste your pain. God will use it if
you give it to Him.
We are trusting God's grace
to move us forward.
Writing has been very therapeutic for my soul.
It has helped me to understand, accept,
and overcome quite a bit of my grief and pain.
It has also given me
the greatest sense of knowing
that my circumstances are simply
a part of my redemption story.
This project has not been a task...
only a privilege; an undeserved honor.
