"You start where I belong: on my knees." I am definitely doing a lot of praying these days. God has blessed me so much just through daily prayer. I know what you're probably thinking. "Duh! Aren't you a missionary? Shouldn't you know all about prayer?" Yes well this may come as a shock to you, but missionaries are humans. :P I have been especially blessed through praying for people. I have a list of all my contacts, family, friends, partners, and prospects. I pray through them about ten people at a time. On various occasions, I have prayed for an individual who later in the day I find out is going through something or in need of encouragement. It does my heart good to be able to say "Hey. I prayed for you today." :)
“I love to hear missionaries pray,
because no one knows daily communion with or the constant provision of God
like a missionary does.” Pastor Myron
Wow. If that's not convicting, I dont
know what is. As many of you know, I am in the candidacy stage of
becoming a full time, faith supported missionary. Typically one might
think of missionaries up there with Sunday school teachers and
Pastors. We have it all together. We know the Bible front and back.
We never worry, and when we mess up its nothing big, or we get it
back together nice and quick.
Don't get me wrong. This is of course
what I strive for but not any more so than anyone else should,
regardless of my personal calling. But we're not what some would call
saints. In fact, the idea of a saint is poorly misunderstood to so
many of today's Christians, I think.
When someone thinks of a saint, they
most likely picture angels and halos, soft speech, gentle walk. Maybe
the sky opens over their head and the heavens sing. I myself picture
a sweet grandmother whom one can't even imagine raising her voice,
let alone doing anything wrong. If this is the case, I am no saint.
And many Christians aren't either, as much as we would love to insist
the contrary.
Let me show you a people in the Bible
who were referred to as saints:
“For it
has been reported to me about you, my brothers, by members of Chloe’s
household, that there is rivalry among you.”
“It is widely reported that there is
sexual immorality among you, and the kind of sexual immorality that
is not even tolerated among the Gentiles—a man is living with his
father’s wife. And you are inflated with pride, instead of filled
with grief so that he who has committed this act might be removed
from your congregation.”
In light of Veteran's Day, I think a lot of people have freedom on their minds.
We
are celebrating a day of remembrance for those who have fought and died
so that we could enjoy the freedoms we enjoy while living in this
country. The many who are willing to put their lives on the line for
people they don't even know.
I
remember when my sister got married in Mexico. My brother and her dad
were on our way through the airport to leave for Mexico, when we saw a
great line of men and women in camouflage passing by us. Who would have
thought the simple words, "Welcome home" would taste so sweet coming
from our mouths? But that was nothing compared to the gratitude they
showed in return.
As
I was driving around today (fighting to make my defrost work so I
wouldn't kill anyone between banks) I heard the song linked below. It's
forceful chorus and inspiring verses got me really thinking about
freedom.
What
would you do for someone else's freedom? This is a thought that pulls
our focus away from ourselves. In a way we are asking not "What am I
worth?" but "What is that lady in the drive thru worth?" or "How much is
that guy that almost took off the front of my truck in the parking
worth?" Because even these people have their freedom fought for daily
just like yours.
So
what would you do for their freedom? Would you leave your home and your
family for an extended amount of time? Would you venture to a foreign
land in which you and the culture surrounding you don't understand one
another? Would you spend days or weeks without proper bath, food, or
sleep? Would you put yourself on the receiving end of a bullet? Or
ridicule? Or a vicious torture device constructed of leather and metal?
Or a crown of thorns? Or a cross?
Face it people, we do not live in a theocracy. America was founded as a haven, freedom of (and from) religion. We live in a country with a system set up, one we learn about extensively in history class, that allows for the election of leaders.
That being said, while God is control of our lives, man runs this nation. We live in a fallen world. No leader can be perfect, and too often we forget that the man in the white house, is just that. A man. He is a person too. You aren't just electing a plan, you are electing a person.
God rules over his children from within. His Spirit lives in us and guides us.
“I still have many things to tell you, but you can’t bear them now.When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth. For He will not speak on His own, but He will speak whatever He hears. He will also declare to you what is to come.He will glorify Me, because He will take from what is Mine and declare it to you.Everything the Father has is Mine. This is why I told you that He takes from what is Mine and will declare it to you." (John 16:12-15)
His Spirit urges us to live in love and mercy toward one another. In no way is one us better than the other, weather by opinion, morality, view point. We are all equal in our sin, and, for the children of God, equal in our sanctification. Proverbs 10:12 states "Hatred stirs up conflicts,but love covers all offenses." Put aside your snarky comments, your doom and gloom posts, your predictions of a downward spiral. The world is not ending because of the election, the world is not a bad place because of the president. The world is a bad place because of sin.
Live in love, and let the living Spirit work through you to love even those who, God forbid, think differently than you do. That doesn't necessarily make them wrong, nor does it make them evil. God loves his creations. You should love them too.
As
a country music fan, I am rarely taken by surprise while listening to
country radio. I've pretty much heard it all (for twenty years. yep.
raised on the oldies and everything.) A lot of it is pretty good, some
kind of pointless, some sad. Every once in a while a song will have
exceptionally great lyrics or bring me to tears. On occasion a song will
be actually so horrible that I train myself to know the first two
notes, in order to change the station as quickly as possible.
(coughcough Luke Bryan, I can tell you where to find me. :P)
But
the other day I actually ran across a song that shocked me. This might
be mostly due to the fact that I thought I was listening to a Christian
Contemporary station, and only after the first few minutes of the song,
did it strike me as an odd addition to their collection.
Before
I go into depth, here is a link to the song, and I will post the full
lyrics to the end of the blog, for your convenience:
Yes,
this song played for a good few minutes before it struck me as odd for
its station. When I realized it was in fact on a country station, I
found it sad that some people would probably have a conniption if they
heard this on Way FM or Klove. The song is so real, so heart felt, and
so true. But let's get down to the essentials, and see if we can avoid
more sensitive issues. (ha! probably not gonna happen. You know me :P)
Granted,
if I were to have a beer with Jesus, I would probably order something
else, but he could of course order whatever he wants. Beer is just not
to my taste, but I wouldn't say no to a taste of any of his favorite
choices. Perhaps a nice bottle of wine, circa 25 AD ish. Maybe we would
just order water and see what he whipped up. (John 2:1-11) Why, yes, I
do think I'm clever. Ok, back to the song.
I just had to post this song. One day I will figure out how to set it as the alarm on my phone. I know, I know. If you aren't awake by now, you're a little late.
But this song is kind a fun all day.Will be blasting it while I'm cleaning today. (Yep. I am cleaning today.)
Last night I went to small group with the youth in my church (plus some). It was a great gathering, with worship and scripture, fellowship, food, and some very loud recreation that I could hear coming from the den, but was never brave enough to witness. :P In the small group we are studying through the book of Romans. The first week we covered some background, as well as the verse that states "I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ." This week we studied specifically these verses: "None is righteous, no, not one;no one understands;no one seeks for God.All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;no one does good,not even one. Their throat is an open grave;they use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips." (Romans 3:10-12) The focus of discussion was on salvation by grace alone, the idea that regardless of our "good deeds," out being "not as bad as" someone else, we are all equally sinners, because God places no hierarchy among sin. Christ likened a malicious thought to the violent act of murdering. (Matthew 5:21-22) When God looks at us, he doesn't see "just a liar," or "a horrible murderer." He see you and me and the guy down the street selling drugs and the folks sitting on death row as THE SAME: sinners.
"Greater Love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends, if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from the Father I have made known to you." John 15:14-15
"Jesus, friend of sinners, we have strayed so far away
We cut down people in your name but the sword was never ours to swing
