Can you imagine receiving a letter saying that your college loans or mortgage was forgiven! Your debt has been paid for... I personally think that would be wonderful! However, if you never got the letter saying that your debt was forgiven, then you would never know, and you'd continue to be in bondage to that debt. Always working to pay it off... That letter, getting the message is vitally important.
This actually happened to my parents about 10 years ago. We had built a new house outside of town, but kept our old house in town and rented it. My parents still owed a few thousand dollars on the house. One day they got a letter from the bank saying that their loan was forgiven! How incredible... The funny thing is that it actually happened a few years before, and all the payments that had been sent in for the past few years they got back as well!... But, if they had never received the letter letting them know their debt was forgiven, they would have continued paying on it for years.
As I was in church today worshiping the lyrics to a song struck my heart. It basically said that my debt of sin was paid for. How awesome is that! Jesus paid it all, and thankfully I've been privy to this news since I can remember. I got the letter saying that my debt was forgiven... Then it hit me. There are millions of people who have their debt forgiven, but they haven't got the letter yet. Why not?... Because we as Christians, who are the messengers, haven't handed them that letter containing life changing news. The Letter, of course, is God's Word.
If you know me at all, you know that God has laid a burden on my heart for missions. At times it breaks my heart and brings me to tears, but at other times I can be so apathetic. Apathy is one of my biggest struggles in life. It's so easy to become complacent, just going through the motions... Recently I've been asking God to awaken my heart, give me back that passion!... Today, He answered that prayer. I felt the Holy Spirit move in a great way, and I thank God for the vision He gave me about The Letter... I've felt that conviction before about the urgency to share the Good News, but God showed it to me in a new way today. It's so cool how He chooses to reveal Himself to us in new and exciting ways. He follows no pattern, which I personally like :)
May we, as Christians, feel that urgency to get The Letter out to those who haven't received it yet! We don't have to write the letter, we don't have to forgive the debt, it's already been done. All we have to do is deliver it!... May we have the willingness to die to ourselves and let God take control of our life. I try to do this (I'm not saying I'm always the best at it because I'm not!), and the path God has taken me on is awesome! A year in South Africa, and soon a year (or more) in Wales! I never could have imagined that would happen to me.
God has given us the mighty honor of delivering His letter of forgiveness to those that don't know. Let us take this seriously, and live a life of abandoment and passion for Christ! It's the only way to live, the only way to be serious follower of Christ.
You have The Letter.
What will you do with it?
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Not my will, but Your will be done
My friends, it's been a while since I've blogged, and for that I am disappointed in myself.
Overall, life is good :) It really is. There's been ups and downs the last few months and some changes as well. I've struggled with my devotions, but I've also had great times of fellowship with Jesus... Let me give you some highlights of what God's been doing in my life.
Kids... I don't know why, but I love them...haha, Working at an elementary school the past 6 months obviously put me around them, a lot. Granted, after a while they can get annoying, but I really feel that God's instilled a love for them in me that's not of my own. I got to know several of the 6th graders at school, and it was a lot of fun being around them. They'd ask me tons of questions, quite a few were very personal questions, but I was pretty open with them. Even though I had a lot of fun with them, there were times when the things they said or reactions they had to situations broke my heart. Many of the boys favorite movies are rated R and incredibly inappropriate for them to see. They, of course, think the movies are hilarious and will imitate and quote them all the time. One day a boy straight up asked me if I was a virgin. Completely taken aback, I explained to him that first of all that wasn't a question you ask someone, but then I had a choice, be very open with these young boys and tell them the answer to that question or just tell them to be quiet. I decided to tell them that I was indeed a virgin and would be until I got married. My heart sank when their mouths dropped to the floor at my statement. How can this be? It was so hard to not share with them about Christ and what He wants for their life, but I found a few ways to squeeze Jesus into the public school system :) They had an international week and one day they talked about South Africa. I took advantage of the opportunity and asked the 6th grade teacher if I could show a video I had made of my time in SA. She was very excited about it and said it would be no problem. I got to show the video, which was as much about Jesus as it was SA. After that I was able to talk with the kids for about 20 minutes answering questions they had. I had to be somewhat politically correct and mention that the things I was saying was saying were from my personal Christian perspective, but I still got it in there... My last day of work I asked the teacher if I could have a few minutes to say goodbye and talk with the kids. I gave them the general work hard and don't do drugs talk, but then I laid it out for them and let them know that God loves them and has a plan for their life and that no matter what happens God will always love them! It was great! It reminded me of SA, and at the same time I had adrenaline pumping because I almost felt like I was doing a covert operation! Openly preaching the gospel in public school, in America!... I still pray for those kids, especially the boys. Being one of the only 4 men in the whole school, plus being young and "cool" in their eyes they looked up to me and had a certain attachment to me. I just hope that the words I said and actions I made left some kind of impact in their life, and that they saw Jesus in what I said and did.
Along the same line of kids, I really can't wait to adopt some children someday. Obviously I'm missing a huge part of that equation, a wife! But I know that someday my wife and I will adopt some children. It's something God was been gradually laying my heart for years now. I'm not sure if this desire to adopt children is just so I will someday adopt children of my own, of if it's where God is leading me in ministry... I really don't know, but I'm continuing to seek after Him for what this burden means.
Work... Since my job was working at an elementary school, obviously I had to find a summer job to pay the bills until the fall. There were lots of prayer, and way too much time looking through the classifieds, but through it all I knew that God would have a job for me. Turns out He wanted me at Westside Market. It's small produce and plant shop. I do all the typical retail type stuff, not that interesting so I will spare you the details... But once again, I'm reminded of God's faithfulness. He's never let me down and has always provided for me! Our God cares about us more than we can imagine. It's crazy!
Jesus... My time with Jesus has been a struggle lately. I want to get close to Him and really be that that intimate friend He wants me to be, but it's hard. I read a good book lately called Simple Obsession. It's about Jesus just being that simple obsession in your life. I'm working at it. One thing I've just started the past few days is typing out a journal and basically writing out my heart to Jesus. It's been good, and I'm hoping I will be disciplined with it and keep it up... Several weeks ago I used my devotional time to write out the things God likes about me as a friend. It was weird, and hard seeing God liking me that way, but I really think that He does, and probably even more than I can imagine!... Life is full of ups and downs, and I'm just going to have to get used to that. I'm not perfect and I never will be, but I can strive for progress. I heard a speaker at a retreat say that God desires progress not perfection, and I believe that to be true. He knows we will always fall short at some point, but the crazy thing is He doesn't care! He just wants us to be His friend, His companion.
Tattoo... Many of you probably know that I have a tattoo of a cross on my right shoulder. I got it over Christmas break my first year of college. The reason I got that tattoo was to represent my deepened relationship with Christ. I had been a Christian pretty much my whole life, but there wasn't much depth to my personal relationship with Jesus. When I started college and got involved with Chi Alpha my relationship with Jesus began to flourish, so that's why I decided on a cross.... Just last weekend I got my second tattoo (see below). It says "Not my will, but Your will be done" It's what Jesus prayed in the garden before He got arrested. He didn't want to die on the cross and He first asked if God could take that burden from Him, but in the same breathe He laid down His rights and put His trust in His father. That's what I want in my life. I want His will to be done, not mine. I want that trust in the father that Jesus had, and that willingness to give it all up, even my very life! This tattoo represents all of that, but also my decision to become a full time missionary. I want that daily reminder of the decision I've made and that reminder that I have to give it all up and seek after His will, not mine.
I know this was a long one, but there's a lot I wanted to say. I hope you enjoyed hearing a little bit of what God's been doing in my life, and if you made it all the way to the end, thank you! :)
Overall, life is good :) It really is. There's been ups and downs the last few months and some changes as well. I've struggled with my devotions, but I've also had great times of fellowship with Jesus... Let me give you some highlights of what God's been doing in my life.
Kids... I don't know why, but I love them...haha, Working at an elementary school the past 6 months obviously put me around them, a lot. Granted, after a while they can get annoying, but I really feel that God's instilled a love for them in me that's not of my own. I got to know several of the 6th graders at school, and it was a lot of fun being around them. They'd ask me tons of questions, quite a few were very personal questions, but I was pretty open with them. Even though I had a lot of fun with them, there were times when the things they said or reactions they had to situations broke my heart. Many of the boys favorite movies are rated R and incredibly inappropriate for them to see. They, of course, think the movies are hilarious and will imitate and quote them all the time. One day a boy straight up asked me if I was a virgin. Completely taken aback, I explained to him that first of all that wasn't a question you ask someone, but then I had a choice, be very open with these young boys and tell them the answer to that question or just tell them to be quiet. I decided to tell them that I was indeed a virgin and would be until I got married. My heart sank when their mouths dropped to the floor at my statement. How can this be? It was so hard to not share with them about Christ and what He wants for their life, but I found a few ways to squeeze Jesus into the public school system :) They had an international week and one day they talked about South Africa. I took advantage of the opportunity and asked the 6th grade teacher if I could show a video I had made of my time in SA. She was very excited about it and said it would be no problem. I got to show the video, which was as much about Jesus as it was SA. After that I was able to talk with the kids for about 20 minutes answering questions they had. I had to be somewhat politically correct and mention that the things I was saying was saying were from my personal Christian perspective, but I still got it in there... My last day of work I asked the teacher if I could have a few minutes to say goodbye and talk with the kids. I gave them the general work hard and don't do drugs talk, but then I laid it out for them and let them know that God loves them and has a plan for their life and that no matter what happens God will always love them! It was great! It reminded me of SA, and at the same time I had adrenaline pumping because I almost felt like I was doing a covert operation! Openly preaching the gospel in public school, in America!... I still pray for those kids, especially the boys. Being one of the only 4 men in the whole school, plus being young and "cool" in their eyes they looked up to me and had a certain attachment to me. I just hope that the words I said and actions I made left some kind of impact in their life, and that they saw Jesus in what I said and did.
Along the same line of kids, I really can't wait to adopt some children someday. Obviously I'm missing a huge part of that equation, a wife! But I know that someday my wife and I will adopt some children. It's something God was been gradually laying my heart for years now. I'm not sure if this desire to adopt children is just so I will someday adopt children of my own, of if it's where God is leading me in ministry... I really don't know, but I'm continuing to seek after Him for what this burden means.
Work... Since my job was working at an elementary school, obviously I had to find a summer job to pay the bills until the fall. There were lots of prayer, and way too much time looking through the classifieds, but through it all I knew that God would have a job for me. Turns out He wanted me at Westside Market. It's small produce and plant shop. I do all the typical retail type stuff, not that interesting so I will spare you the details... But once again, I'm reminded of God's faithfulness. He's never let me down and has always provided for me! Our God cares about us more than we can imagine. It's crazy!
Jesus... My time with Jesus has been a struggle lately. I want to get close to Him and really be that that intimate friend He wants me to be, but it's hard. I read a good book lately called Simple Obsession. It's about Jesus just being that simple obsession in your life. I'm working at it. One thing I've just started the past few days is typing out a journal and basically writing out my heart to Jesus. It's been good, and I'm hoping I will be disciplined with it and keep it up... Several weeks ago I used my devotional time to write out the things God likes about me as a friend. It was weird, and hard seeing God liking me that way, but I really think that He does, and probably even more than I can imagine!... Life is full of ups and downs, and I'm just going to have to get used to that. I'm not perfect and I never will be, but I can strive for progress. I heard a speaker at a retreat say that God desires progress not perfection, and I believe that to be true. He knows we will always fall short at some point, but the crazy thing is He doesn't care! He just wants us to be His friend, His companion.
Tattoo... Many of you probably know that I have a tattoo of a cross on my right shoulder. I got it over Christmas break my first year of college. The reason I got that tattoo was to represent my deepened relationship with Christ. I had been a Christian pretty much my whole life, but there wasn't much depth to my personal relationship with Jesus. When I started college and got involved with Chi Alpha my relationship with Jesus began to flourish, so that's why I decided on a cross.... Just last weekend I got my second tattoo (see below). It says "Not my will, but Your will be done" It's what Jesus prayed in the garden before He got arrested. He didn't want to die on the cross and He first asked if God could take that burden from Him, but in the same breathe He laid down His rights and put His trust in His father. That's what I want in my life. I want His will to be done, not mine. I want that trust in the father that Jesus had, and that willingness to give it all up, even my very life! This tattoo represents all of that, but also my decision to become a full time missionary. I want that daily reminder of the decision I've made and that reminder that I have to give it all up and seek after His will, not mine.
I know this was a long one, but there's a lot I wanted to say. I hope you enjoyed hearing a little bit of what God's been doing in my life, and if you made it all the way to the end, thank you! :)
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