AS A YOUNG GIRL AND LATER ON, AS A TEENAGER, I WAS TOLD sometimes:

 

“Ann Marie, you wear your heart on your sleeve…”

 

The impression I got about this was bad, that it was not good to let anyone know how I was feeling, what I may be thinking according to the smile, grin, scowl, look of timidity or anger seemingly reflecting in my face, my body language… Remember, I did not have godly parents.

 

I really did get the distinct impression it was supposedly better to cover up, to hide my feelings so as to guard myself, protect myself, from others for some bubbleheaded reason; as if needing someone else’s approval was more important than my own opinion of myself, my beliefs. Or, maybe people telling me this believed it was not good to look vulnerable or attackable.

 

This cryptic warning, “Ann Marie, you wear your heart on your sleeve…” is pathetic:
but pathetic only when afraid of the opinion of man. Opinions count for nothing!
Now, I know who I am in Christ: I know my value!

 

Selah!

 

As a Christian who deliberately chooses to grow in Christ, He continually teaches me and blesses me as I walk in His glory. Jesus loves me – the Bible tells me so! And that is why I totally love this teaching:

 

 

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Matthew 22:37-40

 

 

I have grown so in love with this truth. I am, we are, all of us, to love God first and foremost and we are to love people and want them all to live for God. We are also commanded to love ourselves! We are commanded to love ourselves! We are to value ourselves with the untainted, ever holy blood of Christ! That is our value! That is the value of all people! Christ died for all! I have preached and expounded on it often. And as I use this word, expounded, I want to declare without ceasing —- all preaching and teaching must be in line with the Word, the Bible, Jesus. I do not add or subtract from God’s Word! The Bible is our final Authority – it is God in written form. (Remember, I love the Bereans love for God!)

 

 

Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.
Acts 17:11

 

 

“Ann Marie, you wear your heart on your sleeve…”

Now I purposefully, knowingly do this! I want people to see, hear and hopefully get to know Ann Marie Turner: child of God, child of The Most High. Ann Marie Turner: forgiven, loved, precious — holy! Here are some truths about me:

 

 

• I am a new creation. I have gone from sinner to saint. Read about me.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
2 Corinthians 5:17

 

 

• The old me was crucified with Christ. The new me lives by faith in Jesus Christ and His redemptive work. Christ did it! I only believed, repented and receive and receive and receive and receive…

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives   in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of   God, who loved me and gave himself for me.  I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”
Galatians 2:20-21

 

 

• I was chosen by the Creator of all things. I am royalty, holy, declaring always God’s praises

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s  special possession, that you may declare the   praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
1 Peter 2:9

 

 

I am a new creation! I am living by faith in the Son of God who loves me and gave Himself for ME! I am chosen by God! I am a royal priesthood! I am God’s special possession! I do declare His praises, always!

And because I am so very valuable – YOU should love me. YOU ARE commanded to – and I am commanded to love you – and I do!

 

NOW: because I am no longer a sinner, that is a person who is devoted to sin, one who is pre-eminently sinful, especially wicked (check your Bible) I have a God-given, God-paid-for, God-ability to be bold as a lion and as victorious as Christ Jesus! Amen!

 

 

The wicked flee though no one pursues, but the righteous are as bold   as a lion.
Proverbs 28:1

 

 

For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit  himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.  Now if we  are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
Romans 8:14-17

 

 

The new, improved (greatly) Ann Marie Turner is no hypocrite. Honest, loving, godly people cherish rebukes. We cherish correction – no matter who they come from. We cherish correction which leads us to a closer, deeper revelation of what’s right and wrong. We are the Church triumphant and we want to live right, speak well, keep our booties out of Hell, not by works:

 

 

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not   from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.
Ephesians 2:8-9

 

Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but whoever hates correction is stupid.
Proverbs 12:1

 

 

HERE IS THE CONCLUSION OF THE MATTER:

 

I don’t hide anything! I am the same wherever I go: at church, at home, out and about. I meditate on how I treat people — and how they treat me. If I like someone – it shows. If I don’t like someone – it shows.

 

• Did not John the Baptist call many of the Pharisees and Sadducees a brood of vipers? He did.

 

• Did not Saul (Paul is still also called Saul: See Acts 13:9) call Elymas the sorcerer a child of the devil and an enemy of everything that is right? He did.

 

• Did Jesus Christ not call some of the teachers of the law and Pharisees hypocrites, blind guides, snakes, brood of vipers? He did.

 

 

Thankfully, I love correction when it is correct. And I love being me: a new creation, child of God,  chosen by God, a royal priesthood,  God’s special possession!

 

I do wear my heart on my sleeve. I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I am not ashamed I have enemies who hate me. It is an honor. I am not ashamed I choose who I want to play with, laugh with, PRAY WITH!  I  do guard my heart. I do guard my body. I do  guard my soul. I do guard my spirit. I am one of the very precious women (right along with the men) who is the Bride of Christ.

 

I am not ashamed that I am clean, holy. Correct me when I need it. Challenge me when I need it. BUT, if you are against God it will be obvious: I don’t like you!

 

Alleluia!

 

 

 

 

SCRIPTURAL TRUTHS FOR THIS “JOY STORY”:

 

But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?  Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.  And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.
Matthew 3:17-10

 

 Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene,Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul.  While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”  So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off. The two of them, sent on their way by the Holy Spirit, went down to Seleucia and sailed from there to Cyprus.  When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the Jewish synagogues. John was with them as their helper.  They traveled through the whole island until they came to Paphos. There they met a Jewish sorcerer and false prophet named Bar-Jesus,  who was an attendant of the proconsul, Sergius Paulus. The proconsul, an intelligent man, sent for Barnabas and Saul because he wanted to hear the word of God.  But Elymas the sorcerer (for that is what his name means) opposed them and tried to turn the proconsul from the faith.  Then Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked straight at Elymas and said,  “You are a child of the devil and an enemy of everything that is right! You are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery. Will you never stop perverting the right ways of the Lord?  Now the hand of the Lord is against you. You are going to be blind for a time, not even able to see the light of the sun.” Immediately mist and darkness came over him, and he groped about, seeking someone to lead him by the hand. When the proconsul saw what had happened, he believed, for he was amazed at the teaching about the Lord.

Acts 13:1-12

 

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are.

 “Woe to you, blind guides! You say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but anyone who swears by the gold of the temple is bound by that oath.’  You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes the gold sacred? You also say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing; but anyone who swears by the gift on the altar is bound by that oath.’ You blind men! Which is greater: the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred? Therefore, anyone who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. And anyone who swears by the temple swears by it and by the one who dwells in it. And anyone who swears by heaven swears by God’s throne and by the one who sits on it.

 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.  You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.  Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.

 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous.  And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’  So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. Go ahead, then, and complete what your ancestors started!

 “You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?
Matthew 23:13-33

 

“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me.  If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin.  Whoever hates me hates my Father as well. If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.’
John 15:18-25

 

Then a voice came from the throne, saying: “Praise our God, all you his servants, you who fear him, both great and small!” Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting: “Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.” (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of God’s holy people.)  Then the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!” And he added, “These are the true words of God.”
Revelation 19:5-9