As is the case most days when I sit down to write these things, I don’t know where to start. Rebecca-my roommate from college and one of my very closest friends and sisters in the Lord who is serving on the World Race for 11 months, check out her blog! - and I were discussing this via skype (a HUGE Thanksgiving blessing!!)...that after being away from home and in the midst of what God is doing where we are for some time, it starts becoming less about the blogs and the cool missionary stories and the sweet pictures. At first, all of that is exciting and motivating and surreal. But there comes a point, we’ve discovered, when there’s a change in our thinking and we just want more of God. More of who He is and more of Him in us. We both agreed we could go weeks without blogging or posting photos and be just fine. But, nevertheless, we DO want those at home and those close to our hearts to know what’s happening in our lives! So, here ya go. Buckle up, its a long one.
God is doing a LOT. In my heart, in my life, in the lives of the people around me, in this city, in His world. I have really been encouraged by the blogs of fellow brothers and sisters out in the world spreading the love of Jesus and sharing life with people of different cultures and countries. I have to say, I’m proud to be a part of this chosen generation! God’s children are rising up and bringing change and healing in the name of Jesus, and I’m proud to claim them as my family.
Friends, God has chosen us. He has called us up and out....up out of our comfort zones, up out of the familiar, up out of what we’ve known, and OUT into the deep with Him. He has called us out into the world, out into the hard places, out into knowing Him more, knowing His heart more. He has chosen us as His dearly loved children (if you’ve heard Louie Giglio talk about this, dearly loved is also translated as beloved. “Be” is the same as I am...and, as God is I AM that I AM, or BE, to be BEloved is to be God-loved. Louie is much more eloquent than I...check out his sermon series on seeing God as a Perfect Father www.passioncitychurch.com) It’s all about Jesus. It’s all about His love. Wherever we are, whatever continent or situation or season we find ourselves in.
I think I’m starting to get it. God has started a work in me that I pray NEVER ceases.
It’s ALL about LOVE.
That’s it! That’s what all of this is about. That’s what life is about, what knowing God is about, what living to serve is about. It’s all about LOVE. A real, tangible, deep down to your bones kinda love. I think I’ve preached this a million times, but I’ve never understood LOVE like I do now, which makes me giddy at the thought that there is SO much more to love to discover!
I read this on a World Race blog and it totally captures what God has been speaking to my heart these past 10 or so weeks.
There's nothing you can do that would make Him love you more,
There is also nothing you can do that would make Him love you less.
He loves you, because He loves you, because He loves you, because He loves you, because He loves you, because He loves you, because He loves you, because He loves you, because He loves you, because He loves you, because He loves you,
because that is what He is like.
It is His nature to Love, and you will always be the beloved,
And his love is unchanging and He loves you a hundred percent
He won't love you any better when you become better
He loves you a hundred percent right now
And even if you have no plans to become better
He will still love you one hundred percent
Because He loves you because that's the way that He is
And even if you don't wanna change He will love you one hundred percent
And even if you haven no plans to walk with Him, He will love you one hundred percent
Because that's His nature, He loves all the way all the time
His love is unchanging
What will change says the Lord, is your ability to receive My Love.
And I want to cram some more of that ability inside you,
So I challenge you, says the Lord, open your heart to me
Open your heart to me and you will receive more of my love
than you have experienced before; I dare you too.
Give me your heart, give me whatever your obstacle is, I'll take it
I'll remove it out of the way because I love you as you are right now
I love you a hundred percent as you are right now this moment
I love you as you are
So be loved, you are the beloved, it is your job, says the Lord,
to be loved outrageously
it is why I chose you, why I set my love upon you
that you would live as one who is outrageously loved
That you would receive a radical love so radical that it will blow
all your paradigms of what you think love is
And know, says the Lord, I will love you outrageously all the days of your life
Because I don't know how to be any different, this is who I am,
and this is who I will always be
This is the I AM I promised you, I am He that loves you outrageously
And you may love me back with the Love that I give you
You may love me back outrageously with the outrageous Love that I bestow upon You
And know this, says the Lord, you can only love me as much as you love yourself
So my Love comes to set you free from yourself, free from how you see yourself
Set you free from the smallness of your own thinking about yourself
My love comes to set you free from rejection, and from shame,
and from low self-esteem, and from despair, and from abuse.
Because when I look at you, says the Lord, I see something that I love
I see someone that I can love outrageously, and i have so much to bestow upon You
So much to give you, so many places to take You in my heart, but you can't go there unless you allow me to love you, and my love for You will break every barrier,
every wall crashing down.
And know this, says the Lord, "My love damages fear!
My love hates fear, it will fight fear, fear in you, it will fight fear around You,
and if you have fear, says the Lord, then know you have a treat in store
Because My perfect Love casts out fear, there is no fear where I am present
Because My Love casts out fear. Beloved, you are my beloved, you are my beloved
And in my love I want you to feel good about yourself
- Graham Cooke
It’s about love.
He loved us first. We love Him back.
We love others with the love that He fills us with.
It’s about surrender.
As my sweet sister Rebecca put it, Jesus was willing to leave the perfection of heaven to walk this earth for me, for you, for ALL of us. When I think “God, why do you want me to speak to them? I don’t like preaching!” or “Really, God? I’m not quite feeling that today.” or “Um, hey, Jesus? WHAT am I doing here?!” , I want to always remember that Jesus most certainly did not feel like carrying His cross up a hill. He probably didn’t feel like being beating, broken, and crushed for me that day.
But He did it, willingly.
He did it because He LOVES me, because He was completely surrendered to the will of His Father.
He gave His life for me, can I not do so much as to offer up to Him the life He has so freely given me?
I don’t know what the next season of life holds for me. I’ve been offered a teaching position here in South Africa from Feb - Dec 2011, teaching grade 7 English and Math.
It is an understatement to say I really need and appreciate your prayers!!
I DO know that I want to surrender to the Lord all of my plans, my ideas of what my life should or could look like, my opinions and fears and questions. God is working in me to free me from settling for a life of complacency and normalcy, the life I have been so determined to have. I TRUST that God has a plan much bigger than me or my understanding, a plan for my good and for His glory in my life.
I just have to say, that with this HUGE decision looming I’m looking forward to some rest and being in the states! I’m SO excited to spend time with my family, to sit on my couch and drink coffee with my parents and my sister and debrief the last three months, to see my TIGERS and my Phi Lamb sisters and the dear, dear friends who are SO much a part of my heart and this journey and this work God is so graciously doing in me, to go to PASSION 2011 in Atlanta and be refreshed and renewed and reenergized with 20,000+ fellow Jesus seekers, and to get some perspective.
No comments:
Post a Comment