But! That doesn’t mean we are going to like, or even understand, everything that happens when it happens. Yet, we are called to trust in the One True God whose sovereign purpose and love will one day reveal to us how:

“He has made everything beautiful in its time.” Ecclesiastes 3:11

Until that time – whether our seasons bring birth or death, weeping or laughing, mourning or dancing, war or peace – it is always the time to trust in the One who is Eternal, True, Righteous, Wise, and so amazingly Loving.

As we choose, over and over again, to put our trust in God His Beauty will be intimately and powerfully revealed to us – even while we wait for the beauty of everything else to be made known to us…in its time.

“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.” – Joshua 1:9

“…In ME you may have peace. In this world world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world!” – John 16:33

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.” – John 10:10

May we each CHOOSE the freedom and the fullness of all that God offers to us!

Giving Thanks For GOD’s LOVE in the Midst of Brokenness!  
- March 2 – Sylane and Cathy Buser, a faithful and fabulous TBG Team Member, ministered at the Women’s Conference for Cornerstone EV Free Church of Easton, PA. Sylane presented “Is Real Forgiveness Really Possible?” in three sessions during this beautiful day set apart for these precious women. We were absolutely blown away by the response of those who attended – and that many more attended than had been expected! Our God, His Love and His Word spoke deeply, encouragingly and challengingly to all of us – for His glory and the saving and transforming of many lives!

- March 8 – TBG celebrated our 10th Anniversary! We are so thankful for all the many ways God has led us, the lives God has allowed us to touch and the way God has used our Partners in Grace to faithfully support the mission to which we have been called! We are first and foremost to be Christ’s ambassadors who proclaim and live out the truth of God’s Conquering, Unfailing Love – both within our local Counseling Ministry and wherever GOD chooses to open doors for our Conference Speaking Ministry!

- April 15 and 16 – Sylane ministered (again!) at Mathom House, the prison/rehabilitation facility for adolescent sexual perpetuators. During two Marathon Therapy Sessions Sylane shared her testimony of abuse with these young men who have so horribly abused others. Yet, that is not where she ended her story…nor does it need to be the end of the story for these young men! These young men – wounded ones themselves – were told the truth about how horrendously ugly, evil, cruel, selfish and destructive their actions were towards each of those precious people whom they victimized. AND they were told of the grace of Jesus that offers them forgiveness, healing, renewal and the power to choose to live their lives held by God rather than held by their lusts or their wounds. PRAY that each of these young men will allow God to break the cycle of abuse in their lives so that they never victimize another person…and PRAY that they will be set free from the sins of their pasts so that they may live transformed lives that reflect God’s healing – within themselves and in every future relationship they have.

The young men with whom I have spoken at Mathom House over these past ten years often ask me why would I come to speak to them – knowing what they’ve done…knowing what I have suffered. My answer: Christ’s love compels me. I know and, yes, I am convinced that Jesus did not have to shed even one more drop of blood to forgive them than He did for me. We each are just as needy for God’s love, forgiveness and renewal in our lives. I am just as desperate for Jesus, His Salvation, His Transformation and His Promise of Eternal Life as are they.

Our Next Events to be lifting in PRAYER!  
- May 19-31 – Sylane will be in Jordan with a dear friend. We won’t be sharing too many details via public internet venues. However, we are asking you to be in prayer for God to allow Sylane to be a vessel of His love, hope and peace to all with whom she interacts.
If you would like to have more information about Sylane’s trip to Jordan, please email DeAnne Harland – our Administrative Angel – at: Info@transformedbygrace.org
Also, we are asking for at least 12 people to commit to praying daily for Sylane’s time in Jordan. Again, please contact DeAnne if God is moving you to this particular act of love.

- May 31-June 8 – Sylane will go from Jordan to the UK! Why Not? It’s on the way!

• May 31-June 3 – At least three events (and there may be more!) in the Chesham, Bucks area are being put together with the help of our dear friends Mandy Watsham and Clive Dunstall.  
• June 7 – another event has been organized because a precious woman and new friend, Lorna Selwood, from Winchester, Hampshire reached out to Sylane after she watched (via http://blog.compassion.com/what-is-forgiveness/) Sylane’s February 20, 2013 talk at Compassion International Headquarters’ Chapel and read “Convinced!”

How great is our God to weave all of our lives together for His good purposes so that His love, hope, healing, freedom, salvation and transformation may be made known to many others!

Keep those PRAYERS coming for ALL that we do as ambassadors of our Lord Jesus Christ!

 Join us in Fighting the Right Fight – Being God’s Love – in the Midst of Brokenness! 
Become a Partner in Grace and YOU will help us bring God’s Love and Healing to others in very deep and tangible ways. YOUR financial support and your prayers make so many things possible:

• We can continue to offer solidly professional and Biblical Counseling to those who are wounded – many of whom cannot pay for our services. Yet, as a ministry we are committed to paying our TBG Adjunct Counselors for their professional care-giving, wise and godly counsel and sacrifice of time that they make for each child, youth, man, woman, couple and family with whom they meet.
• We can continue to accept Conference Speaking invitations from wherever those invitations come – even if the organization is not able to pay (or pay fully) for the event and the travel expenses. We are first and foremost committed to sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ and the healing and transformation that He offers. With that as our first commitment, we are fully dependent on God – via our Partners in Grace – to provide for the sustainability of this ministry so that we may continue to bear much fruit!
• We can continue to provide Bibles for the young men at Mathom House (and others) as we have committed to doing for anyone who asks.
• And in – oh! – so many more ways as we touch lives directly with the transforming grace of Jesus Christ!

PLEASE become a Partner in Grace with us today!

Connect with Sylane via Facebook! AND order your copy of CONVINCED!
Our God is using CONVINCED! powerfully in many lives! Be part of the healing by sharing CONVINCED!
Remember to join us on the 10th day of each month as we passionately PRAY for God’s life-giving, life-freeing, transforming work to be done in the lives of all with whom we minister – at conferences, counseling sessions, on corners and in coffee shops!
All for God’s glory and with the passionate call to be vessels of God’s love in the midst of brokenness!
You are lifted in love and prayer – the Board and Staff of Transformed by Grace!
Sylane Mack

Because of God’s great love – because Jesus Christ died and rose from the dead and conquered the power that sin and shame and death held over us – we are rescued from the dominion of darkness and brought into God’s kingdom of light!

From the moment we put our trust in Jesus as our Savior our eternal life begins as citizens of Heaven – citizens of God’s Kingdom of Light!

In Jesus – we are LOVED unfailingly, outrageously. “For I am convinced…that not anything in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” – Romans 8:37-39

In Jesus – we are assured of our deep worth to our Holy and Almighty God and Creator. God created us and offers us re-creation through the death and resurrection of His One and Only Son! “For God so loved the world that He gave His One and Only Son that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.” – John 3:16

In Jesus – we are forgiven completely of all our sins and completely made new. “Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now He has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in His sight, without blemish and free from accusation” – Colossians 1:21-22

In Jesus – we are given a completely new identity and powerful purpose. “You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light.” – 1 Peter 2:9.

So let us not allow ourselves to keep living in the shadow lands of the dominion of darkness.

We are loved. We are rescued. We are forgiven. We are made new. We are empowered by the very Spirit of the Living God to be Christ’s Light to all those still held captive in the dominion of darkness. Let us live, truly and passionately, as ones who are citizens of the Kingdom of God’s Love and Light! Right here and now!

In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?  He is not here; HE HAS RISEN! Remember how He told you, while He was still with you in Galilee: ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified, and on the third day be raised again.’ Then they remembered His words.” – Luke 24:1-8

JESUS HAS RISEN! Always Remember!

This Truth changes everything! This Truth changes all who believe!

JESUS HAS RISEN! Always Remember!

Jesus has conquered the power of sin.

Jesus laid down His pure life to purify us by His own blood shed on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins. And through this act of ultimate love, Jesus bore the full punishment of condemnation and separation from our LORD so that we who trust in Jesus as our Messiah-our Savior may approach our Heavenly Father as His holy, dearly loved children! 

JESUS HAS RISEN! Always Remember!

Jesus has conquered the power of death.

Our Lord Jesus could not be bound by the cords of death! He is the Lord of Life—with all power and authority to eternally conquer death and to grant eternal life to all who believe!

Jesus Himself assured us of this great hope, this great victory over death:

“I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes Him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life. I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.

For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself. And He has given to Him authority to judge because He is the Son of Man.” – John 5:24-27

JESUS HAS RISEN! Always Remember!

And Jesus desires each one of us to hear and believe His Words of Grace and Truth:

I died for your sins. I alone could do this. I Am GOD. You are forgiven. You are free of all blame and all shame. I bore it all for your freedom!

I have eternal life to give you. I alone could do this. I Am GOD. You need never fear death again. I swallowed it up in full victory. Death cannot hold my children—you who believe in me. I have already rescued you from death and brought you into the promised eternal life with Me!

JESUS HAS RISEN! Always Remember!

You have a choice to make. We all have a choice to make about Jesus.

Believe the message of Jesus and receive the salvation and eternal life that comes through Jesus Christ alone.

HOW? Ask Jesus, even now, to be your Savior. Let God know that you believe that Jesus is His Son who died for your sins and rose from the dead to give you eternal life.

God loves you so much. Your Heavenly Father wants you to hear and believe; God wants you to be set free from the power of sin and the judgment of death.

God wants you to know the total forgivness that Jesus alone offers and the hope and joy of eternal life with the Sovereign and Holy God of all creation!

Believe. And thank God for hearing your confession of faith in Jesus as your Savior. Tell someone about your decision to trust in Jesus for your forgiveness and eternal life!

Welcome Home, precious one, Welcome Home!

 JESUS HAS RISEN! Always Remember!

This was the same night that Jesus knelt down as a lowly servant to wash the feet of His followers to show them what His love is truly about–humbly caring for, and cleaning, even the roughest, dirtiest areas of our lives.

Yet, we are cut to our souls to know that this new command of LOVE was given on the very same night when Jesus was left alone, by all His closest friends, as He poured out His heart in agonizing prayer to His Father.

It was the same night that Jesus was betrayed by Judas, one of His closest followers, who with a kiss brought a crowd carrying clubs and swords to seize and arrest the Prince of Peace.

It was the same night that the one Jesus had named Peter–the Rock–would choose to lie about Him and three times deny even knowing Jesus. How could this outrageous denial happen? Wasn’t it Peter who had once boldly proclaimed, ” You are the Christ! The Son of the Living God! ” ?

On Friday we went to a Good Friday service that had us look full in the face of our Jesus as He suffered a horribly ugly, shameful, unjust, undeserved death on the cross. He was falsely accused. Jesus was mocked, slapped, beaten with fists, whipped with the flesh-ripping lashes. His holy head was punctured and bloodied by the fierce push of the crown of thorns. His feet that walked so many miles to preach good news to the poor and His healing hands that had healed all manner of illness, cast out demons and gave life back to the dead were now brutally stopped as nails hammered into them, pushing His flesh and blood into the wood of the cross. And even after Jesus committed His spirit into the hands of His Father and gave up His last breath–His side was pierced by the forceful stabbing of the soldier’s sword.

On Friday Jesus died in an agony of spirit and body–that none of us will ever fully comprehend. He suffered the physical torment of outrageous brutality while bearing the weight of every sin ever committed by every person throughout all of human history. Jesus died for me. For my sin. For you. For your sin.

On Friday His dead, disfigured body was taken down from that cross, and Jesus was buried in a tomb that was meant for another.

And now it’s Saturday. No more lies. No more betrayal. No more denial. No more brutality. Just death.

This is Saturday–the Sabbath. But rest comes only as shock. Only as numbness. Only from exhaustion of body, mind and spirit. It’s quiet. It’s dark. It’s confusing.

This is Saturday, and we wait…there is something we are holding onto…but right now that something is indistinguishable. It is the shock and the numbness that are far more real and more tangible than anything else right now on this Saturday…on this Sabbath. Too many questions. Too much confusion. And so we wait…

Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by Him, and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wournds we are healed.

We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD laid on him the iniquity of us all.  Isaiah 53:4-6

God has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what He has done [is doing and will do] from the beginning to the end! – Ecclesiastes 3:11

Giving Thanks For How GOD Makes Everything Beautiful in Its Time!
- February 19-24 – Sylane was in Colorado Springs and Denver, ministering in many ways with many people!
Feb 20 – At Compassion International Headquarters in Colorado Springs for a day of ministry. Sylane spoke at CI’s Chapel Service – sharing her testimony through her talk entitled, “No Matter What! Love Conquers All!” Between 550 and 600 people attended. Her talk was also live-streamed to 28 different Compassion ministry venues around the world. May God be glorified! You can watch the Chapel service on the Compassion Blog for 2/24 at: http://blog.compassion.com/what-is-forgiveness/

After Chapel Sylane met with many to listen/talk/counsel/pray with those who sought this more intimate time.
Lunch was spent enjoying fellowship, encouraging and sharing ideas with Compassion’s Staff Care Team.
Jill (Ridder) DeRaad, a dear younger friend and Compassion employee, served as Sylane’s partner at CI.

Feb 21 and 22 – Sylane spoke both days LIVE on the radio show “Broken and Beautiful with the REAL Traci Rock” on KLTT 670AM. Amazing time of deep ministry and a powerful connection with Traci, Carrie and Cydnie at the studio! All praise be to our God who does make all things beautiful!
You can listen to podcasts of these two shows at: http://www.brokenandbeautiful.net/ These amazing people actually put a special tab for “Sylane Mack” on their website, sharing information about the ministry of Transformed by Grace and “Convinced!” All for the glory of God and for Christ’s beautiful transforming grace to be made known in many, many more lives!

- Three other meetings with individuals, couples and groups of ministry leaders also took place over those days! God truly does make everything beautiful in its time…according to His time! And God uses the Body of Christ to display, reveal and pour out so much of His Awesome Beauty into this dark world!

Our Next Events to be lifting in PRAYER!
- March 2 (Yes! Tomorrow!) Sylane and Cathy Buser, a faithful and fabulous TBG Team Member, will minister at the Women’s Conference for Cornerstone EV Free Church of Easton, PA. Sylane will present “Is Real Forgiveness Really Possible?” in three sessions during this beautiful day set apart for these precious women.

- March 8 – TBG will be having a special event to give thanks to our God and to our Partners in Grace as we celebrate our 10th Anniversary! We are so thankful for all the many ways God has led us, the lives God has allowed us to touch and the way God has used our PinGs to faithfully support the mission to which we have been called! We are first and foremost to be Christ’s ambassadors who proclaim and live out the truth of God’s Conquering, Beautiful Love – both within our local Counseling Ministry and wherever GOD chooses to open doors for our Conference Speaking Ministry!

Please PRAY for God’s Conquering, Beautiful Love to transform every life present at every event and in every counseling appointment!

Please join us in PRAYING                                                                                                – for Convinced! (Sylane’s autobiography) to get into the hands, heads, hearts and lives of many, many people so they may know the incredible, transforming grace of our God and the power of His forgiveness and love!
- for our Counseling Ministry to passionately and wisely offer the love, hope, healing, grace and truth of our Lord Jesus Christ to all those with whom we meet – individual men and women, couples, families, children and youth!
- for our Conference Speaking Ministry to have many more opportunities to bring the message of Christ’s love and transforming grace to many more groups of people locally, nationally and internationally! Please help to open the doors for this to happen by encouraging others you know to book TBG for a retreat, conference or outreach!
- for our  Partners in Grace that God would bless our current PinGs for whom we are so very grateful!
Pray, too, that God would increase and encourage more people to become our Partners in Grace - praying for us and financially supporting us so that we may grow in our ability to reach many others with the message of Christ’s transforming grace with which God has entrusted us!

PLEASE become a Partner in Grace with us today!

Connect with Sylane via Facebook!    AND order your copy of CONVINCED!

Remember to join us on the 10th day of each month as we passionately PRAY for God’s life-giving, life-freeing, transforming work to be done in the lives of all with whom we minister – at conferences, counseling sessions, on corners and in coffee shops!

All for God’s glory and with the passionate desire to be vessels of God’s Conquering, Beautiful Love!
You are lifted in love and prayer – the Board and Staff of Transformed by Grace!
Sylane Mack

Is Real Forgiveness Really Possible?

• 1st Session – God’s Answer to This Question
• 2nd Session – How Do I Really Live in Real Forgiveness?
• 3rd Session – How Do I Forgive Myself of all the Really Yucky Things I’ve Done?

Feb 21 – 2-3 PM MT – Sylane will be speaking live on the radio show “Broken and Beautiful with the REAL Traci Rock” on KLTT 670AM. Thank you, Carol Mehl, for making this happen! Okay! GOD used you to make what He wanted to happen happen!
Feb 22 – 2-3 PM MT – Sylane has been invited to speak for a second time on “Broken and Beautiful with the REAL Traci Rock“ on KLTT 670AM.

- Other meetings with individuals, couples and groups of ministry leaders will also place over those days!