SHOW NOTES:
Our Guest: Brooke Martin
Brooke Martin is an Emmy-winning anchor and reporter originally from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. For fifteen years, Brooke told the community’s stories and asked the hard questions of those in charge. From an Oval Office interview to a conversation with a neighbor who just lost their job, Brooke has had a front-row seat to both the impressive and the important stories that make up our lives.
But none impacted her more than her own. Shortly after announcing her second pregnancy on air, Brooke and her husband received a fatal diagnosis for their daughter, Emma Noelle. For six months, Brooke carried their daughter while publicly walking through grief and ultimately loss.
Brooke is now working to show others how life’s fires have the ability to bring new growth, greater beauty, and everlasting hope. Sign up for her free resource, Proof + Prayer, sent straight to your inbox at MoreWithBrookeMartin.com.
Brooke lives in Zionsville, Indiana, with her husband, Cole, and her two children, Max and Marlowe. You can find them at their church, Antioch Indy, or biking on one of Zionsville’s beautiful trails. Controlled Burn is her first book.
Key Thoughts and Scriptures:
Isaiah 55:8-9 NKJV “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.”
“You don’t really know Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you have.” -Tim Keller
- Brooke found herself searching for real, tangible love hoping to fill the void that was left when her parents divorced.
- When Brooke turned back to God, every day her hunger grew and she wanted nothing but Jesus.
- “God, are you really this intentional? Are you really this fun? Do you really work in such personal ways? And the resounding answer in my heart was, was yes!”
- There is nothing worth pursuing more than Jesus.
- “I felt myself really rubbing up against some things that I had preconceived notions of that were difficult. I had to wrestle a lot of things out.”
- “This is what it feels like when God moves through His church, His plan for redemption is us.”
- It’s breaking every box that I had placed Him in wide open.
- Time and time again, God spoke to Brooke in all different ways saying, ‘I need my children in the darkness. I need my light in the darkness.’
God whispered the name “Emmanuel” to Brooke in the midst of a heart-breaking diagnosis.
- “We named our daughter, Emma Noel after her namesake, Emmanuel, that name that was whispered to my heart. Because we realized very quickly that God was delivering a message that yes, He is with us.”
- The cuddle cot is a bassinet that allows parents to have time with their child for closure. It’s a gift of time
- Brooke realized God was with her. She and her husband had just walked through the unimaginable. They had just walked through fire and weren’t burned.
Isaiah 43:2 NIV When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.
- “Jesus defeated death and now we can too. And it was the most profound awakening, because up until that point, we were living a very comfortable Christianity.”
- Something shifted in that moment, “This is way bigger than we could have imagined. God is way better than we could fathom and the power that is available to us and the access we had as children of God is something profound and all we knew is that we wanted more of it.”
- “We just wanted to get around believers who were on fire and passionate and pursuing Jesus and the Holy Spirit in ways that we hadn’t before. And long story short, it changed us.”
Brooke’s Vision
- Brooke had a vision of a burned out forest, totally blackened landscape. And with it came the words “controlled burn”.
- Piece by piece, God started downloading the concept that life’s fires can take one of two divergent paths. They can grow out of control and create damage for generations. Or if they’re bordered by God’s promises, they can actually burn away what is holding us back from His presence. And leave behind nutrient rich soil that can grow things inside of us that could have never been cultivated without the fire.
- “Because we understood now how God moves and how it’s unexpected and how it doesn’t always make sense, we were able to trust Him because He had led us through the fire.”
- A rainbow baby is the term that’s used for a child that comes after a loss. So it’s kind of a God’s promise type of term.
What has infiltrated your forest that has gone unnoticed?
- Truth is the ultimate comfort and it is the lasting comfort. It is what will lead us to the other side with restoration and redemption.
- And faith can be renewed and awakened in a way that oftentimes only suffering can bring about.
- There is nothing worth pursuing more than knowing Jesus and that it is in our suffering.
- Don’t dismiss suffering as something to rush through or get past or even just survive. This is a divine opportunity to know our suffering savior.
- But it’s up to us to accept the invitation of surrender.
Mary Magdalene’s Story
Luke 8:1-3 NIV, John 19:25 NIV, John 20:1-18 NIV
- Mary’s life is this incredible depiction of a controlled burn.
- She was saved from seven demons. So her life was a wildfire, right?
- At the very presence of Jesus, He extinguished it and her love for Jesus was undeniable.
- So when the tables turned and Jesus was in His darkest hour, she was there and she didn’t leave him.
- Her love kept her at the foot of the cross and then at the tomb.
- Suffering has entered her world again, but now it is bordered by her love for him and by His love for her.
- God’s saying, “Don’t ask me for a return to normal because I’m doing something new in you.”
- Here is this woman who was demon possessed and now is an apostle to the apostles.
- She is raised up, elevated, and given new life, new power, and new awakening because of Jesus’s death and resurrection.
- Don’t just desire a return to normal. He has so much more for us.
Philippians 3:10-11 NIV I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.
- Brooke has lived this verse in a very real way and is convinced that knowing Christ is worth the journey.
2 Thessalonians 2:16-17 NLT Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal comfort and a wonderful hope, comfort you and strengthen you in every good thing you do and say.
Links:
Books:
- Controlled Burn by Brooke Martin
- Walking with God Through Pain and Suffering by Tim Keller
- The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren
Connect with Us:
Website: HerGodStory.org
Website: SomebodyCares.org,
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SomebodyCaresAmerica/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/somebodycaresamerica
Rumble: https://rumble.com/user/SomebodyCares
Twitter: https://twitter.com/_SomebodyCares
Somebody Cares Prayer Line (855) 459-CARE (2273)
Want to help Widows and Orphans? Join our growing company of women meeting special needs of parentless children and nurturing their unique gifts so they can be ALL God has in mind for them! And help meet real needs of women who have given a lifetime of service to God! Support the Somebody Cares Widows and Orphan fund today!
Share this message with a friend and subscribe for weekly encouragement and inspiration!
You can also receive periodic ministry updates from Somebody Cares, and/or weekly Provoke-a-Thought emails, monthly teaching emails, or join our prayer team by signing up here!