From Captive to Conqueror

By Julie Merrin

Many things can hold us captive. Addictions. Compulsions. Self-hatred. Dark fantasies. Bitterness. The list goes on. Often, we try to escape these captors in our own strength, but with little or no success. Whatever success we have is fleeting.

Then one day, we realize we cannot win in our own strength. We cry out for help. God answers that cry and amazing things begin to happen.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Julie Merrin
• Release date: Apr 24, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301513604

Julie Merrin

Hi! I’m Julie Merrin. I grew up in Findlay, Ohio, in a large family. As the oldest of six children in an often loud and chaotic house, I discovered early on that I could escape some of the chaos by losing myself in a book. I did this frequently and with such efficiency that my two youngest brothers could be rolling around on the floor fighting three feet from me...and I would be oblivious. In my imagination, I was probably somewhere on the prairie in the old west or on a rocket to the moon. You can go anywhere in a book. It is not too surprising then, that I had a dream of one day becoming a writer. When I was in about 4th grade, I used to say that when I grew up, I wanted to be a teacher during the school year, a librarian in the summer...and a writer in my spare time. Up until age 49, my only published work was a poem that appeared as an award winner in the October 1974 "Wee Wisdom" children's magazine. The funny thing about that one was that I had forgotten the assignment given by Mrs. Gerber, my 6th grade language arts teacher, to write a poem. As I stood with my classmates outside her door waiting for the previous class to be dismissed, someone asked me what I had written. Frantically, I asked if anyone had a piece of paper I could borrow. Someone gave me a small sheet torn from a 3X5 notepad on which I scribbled eight lines of poetry, breathed a sigh of relief, and turned it in. I didn't find out until I was in 7th grade that my teacher had liked the poem, submitted it, and that it had been published. Over the years, I have written a number of other things including a Christmas play, a children's musical, and a number of short skits. These have all been performed, but not yet officially published. I have three ideas in various stages of development for collections of anecdotes on topics ranging from language bloopers to Merrin family legends. The first would likely appeal to expatriates living around the world. The last, though, is likely to have a fairly limited audience. Currently, I am working on a series of children's books for kids aged 5-9. The "Katie Grace" series follows the adventures, trials, and challenges of a seven-year-old girl. Katie Grace is energetic, enthusiastic, competitive, sometimes selfish, and other times tender-hearted. In the first books of the series, her parents use several of the parables Jesus told to help Katie Grace find solutions to the challenges she faces. Book #1 in this series is available on Smashwords as of early March 2013. As for my personal life, I currently minister with children and teens at a children's home in Southeast Asia. I have lived in this area of the world since 1993, and deeply love the people here. I am a single mom to a beautiful daughter who I adopted from this country. She has been with me since she was six weeks old, with the adoption finally being finished when she was two years old. That could be another story to write, but as it is HER story, I don't think I'll ever publish it as part of a biography. But who knows...a fictionalized version might show up somewhere along the line in that novel I want to write someday.

Book preview

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank several very important people who have helped me bring this book to completion.

I would like to thank Jordan Blanton for her invaluable assistance with the questions for reflection at the end of each chapter.

A big thank-you goes to the many people over the years who have read the manuscript in its varying stages of development, and have given me valuable feedback. There are so many of you that I could not possibly remember each one. You know who you are. Please know that I deeply appreciate your contribution.

I also want to thank Lelia, Rhonda, and Bev, who sat across the table from me and listened with open hearts as I brought the uglier parts of my life into the light of truth. Thank you for the love and grace you extended to me.

I would especially like to thank Pauline, who, more than any other human being, knows how frighteningly I was held captive, and she loves me anyway. The grace she extended to me on my journey into freedom gave me courage to keep pressing on.

Most of all, I thank my Lord Jesus Christ, Who lifted this captive out of her own deep waters, brought me into a spacious place, and is still teaching me to be a conqueror.

For His glory,

Julie Merrin

Using the Questions for Reflection

One of the blessings of a Christian walk is fellowship in a community of other believers. Often the intentions to study God’s Word slowly fade without the encouragement of others. Perhaps there is someone near you that you can meet with regularly to discuss the contents of this study.

Studying God’s Word is wonderful, but memorizing and meditating on His word is the best way to place His word on your heart and mind. Your accountability with another believer will help you to build this discipline into your life. When you first look at the forty-nine verses covered in this Bible study, you may feel overwhelmed; but the twenty-eight chapters break the passage down into manageable segments for scripture memory. Memorization is never easy, but it can make a huge difference in your daily life as it increases the ways the Holy Spirit can reveal Himself to you. If the scripture memory assignment for each chapter seems too long, pick one segment that stands out to you and memorize it well. It would be beneficial to find accountability with another believer to help you with this discipline.

After you have said your verse out loud, use the verse from the chapter to praise God, and pray your verses back to Him.

Journaling

Set up road signs; put up guideposts. Take note of the highway, the road that you take.

—Jeremiah 31:21

Although you can answer many of the questions for reflection within this book, you may want to use a separate journal instead. The journey of our lives often takes turns we would not have chosen for ourselves. Even though some events are not chosen, we do have choices on this journey—namely, how we will choose to respond to those unexpected turns. The journal sections in this study offer you the opportunity to keep a record of your personal journey. Many find that writing out prayers, thoughts, and feelings is helpful and healing. It will also serve as a marker for what God is teaching you, helping you to organize your thoughts, so you can share with your accountability partner or others participating in the study with you.

There is no right or wrong way to journal. Don’t feel like you have to journal after every section of this study. Respond to the ones that fit your situation. Consider the following suggestions:

1) Choose a journal or notebook that is easy to write in. This will be a permanent record of your experience. You may choose to do this on a computer.

2) Each time you write, begin with the date. This will allow you to look back and see the guideposts along your journey.

3) Write as spontaneously as you can. Do not worry about spelling, grammar, or punctuation. Do not be concerned about being correct. This journal is for your record … not something to be published for others to read.

4) Write honestly—not just how you think you should feel. You may be ashamed of what you said, felt, or did. In spite of that, try to be as honest as you can.

God Captures My Attention

It was April 29, 2002. I was in my home in the island country of Indonesia, where I had lived for almost nine years. I settled myself on my bed and reached for my Bible, prepared to read the passages assigned for that day in a read-the-Bible-through-in-a-year program I had used for nine or ten years. I turned to the Old Testament passage of 2 Samuel 22, not really expecting to find much new in this historical book I had read many times before. Was I ever in for a surprise! I had absolutely no clue what God had in store, in what has become to me one of the most precious and meaningful passages in God’s Word.

The words of 2 Samuel 22 hit me like a thunderbolt from heaven. It was not a thunderbolt of conviction, but rather an electrifying picture of the awesome power of God at work in the lives of His children. On the first reading, several parallels between my experience and David’s leaped off the page and planted themselves firmly in my heart. But God was not through using this passage to reveal Himself to me. No, He kept bringing me back to it again and again. In fact, no matter what other reading was assigned over the next two months, I always came back to 2 Samuel 22, in addition to the rest. Over and over again, God showed me something new and precious about what He had already done in my life, what He was still doing, and what He was going to do.

Many people recognize this passage as Psalm 18. It is true that the two chapters are almost identical. However, I will always think of these verses as 2 Samuel 22. That is where I first came to know and love them. And it is from 2 Samuel that I would like to share them with you.

What was it about this passage that struck me so forcefully? Why had these words never gripped me before in the same way they did on that particular day? After all, I had used the same Bible-reading program for years, so I had, no doubt, encountered this chapter at least nine times before in 2 Samuel, and another nine times in Psalm 18, the assigned reading for July fifteenth. The words were there. The truth had always been there, just waiting to be recognized. What made April 29, 2002, different from all the other April twenty-ninths and July fifteenths of the previous decade?

The difference was in my heart. For nearly two months before I encountered this passage in such an earthshaking way, God had been taking me through a crisis of the soul, digging up and rooting out some serious areas of struggle in my thought life and certain compulsive behaviors that I had been unable to overcome for a long time. I had tried to overcome them on my own. Again and again, I had failed miserably.

I did many of the things Christians are supposed to do, even sharing from God’s Word and leading Bible studies, but I knew things were still not right between God and me. Over and over, I asked God to use me in spite of myself, and incomprehensibly, in His grace, He often did. But I still knew I fell far