Well, friends, I have great news! I only have $150 more to raise for my one week mission trip to Acapulco. (I expect it will come in shortly.) Praise the Lord! Please continue to pray that the Lord will keep things safe enough in Acapulco that we will be able to go as planned in late July. I can't wait to see my precious brothers and sisters again. Please continue to pray for their growth in Christ--and for the salvation of those who have not accepted Christ yet.
I have one last day with my family tomorrow and then I fly out on Tuesday to Florida. I am so excited to spend the summer being discipled and taught about youth ministry. I hope the Lord will use me in a lot of little ways. Please pray for my ministry and growth over the summer.
My mother was talking on the phone the other day and telling a friend that I would be gone for the summer, once again. She labeled me "adventurous" in her conversation, which made me think. Am I really adventurous? I actually think I'm a bit of a chicken. At the same time, I love change and new things. Perhaps it is only when God instills a specific idea in my head that I get adventurous. Either way, it's off to the next adventure on Tuesday!
Please continue to lift me up in prayer! Here are some updated requests:
1. That the Lord would give me a firmer grasp of my identity in Jesus.
2. That the Lord would teach me and use me this summer. Pray for the high schoolers at Orangewood, that the Lord would prepare their hearts for this summer.
3. Please pray for a safe trip to Acapulco in July and for the opportunity to follow up with many of my dear friends. Please pray specifically that a few of the teenagers I keep in touch with would be walking with the Lord.
4. Please pray for Josh and me. Ask that the Lord would grow us closer to himself and teach us how to better serve each other and serve together. Please, as always, pray that God's will be done.
5. Please pray that He will teach me to "lean not on my own understanding."
Thank you, for being part of my adventure, by reading these updates! Praise be to our Lord Jesus Christ who remains faithful when we are fickle, who restores us gently as our Shepherd.
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Where is justice?
Every Christian really should struggle at some point with this question: Where is justice? Sometimes I just want to scream in agony, seeing all the pain and sin and terror in the world. How long will you wait, Father?
The truth is, while my faith holds strong, I am struggling right now. God, where is justice? How can you stand to leave things so? Yet, I know He feels that tension too. I know He is good. I know He is at work.
Abba, help me trust your timing.
The truth is, while my faith holds strong, I am struggling right now. God, where is justice? How can you stand to leave things so? Yet, I know He feels that tension too. I know He is good. I know He is at work.
Abba, help me trust your timing.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
The Weary Traveler
These past few weeks have been a whirlwind! The last week of school was canceled, following the touch down of some twenty tornadoes in the Chattanooga area. Thankfully, none touched down on campus, but they did damage to the water company that cut off our water supply. So, let out a week early, we were not sure what to think! I certainly was not unhappy to miss out on exams, but it was an abrupt goodbye. We were given twenty four hours to evacuate, and as RA I spent a lot of that trying to help get other people out. What a mess! Then, just as I was leaving, my car check engine light came on. Since it was the weekend, I could not get my car fixed. Josh and I hoped to be at his brother's play the next afternoon in Augusta, so I had to leave my car at my dear friend Cathy's house.
The weeks that ensued were wonderful. We started out by visiting Josh's family for a few days. After that, we traveled to Marietta where we spent several days hanging out with some of our closest friends. Then, we went back to Chattanooga to get my car fixed. (Praise God, it was not too expensive!) After that, it was back to Josh's house. Three days later, we were on the road to Florida for a wedding I was in. It was beautiful! Yesterday, I flew into Wisconsin for a two week visit before my summer job begins in Florida.
It was fun to jump around and see so many people. We were blessed with generous hospitality everywhere we went. However, it is so great to be home, where I can take a nap and have my own space. Of course, I am being dramatic to call myself a "weary traveler," because these were great weeks of fun. However, I am in need of some good rest!
Praise our God who is ever faithful! Please continue to pray that He will work in my heart and shape me to be more like our Jesus!
The weeks that ensued were wonderful. We started out by visiting Josh's family for a few days. After that, we traveled to Marietta where we spent several days hanging out with some of our closest friends. Then, we went back to Chattanooga to get my car fixed. (Praise God, it was not too expensive!) After that, it was back to Josh's house. Three days later, we were on the road to Florida for a wedding I was in. It was beautiful! Yesterday, I flew into Wisconsin for a two week visit before my summer job begins in Florida.
It was fun to jump around and see so many people. We were blessed with generous hospitality everywhere we went. However, it is so great to be home, where I can take a nap and have my own space. Of course, I am being dramatic to call myself a "weary traveler," because these were great weeks of fun. However, I am in need of some good rest!
Praise our God who is ever faithful! Please continue to pray that He will work in my heart and shape me to be more like our Jesus!
Monday, May 2, 2011
A Hebrews 13 Life
I have been thinking a lot about personal mission statements lately, thanks to the helpful (though repetitive) Dan Allender and his book To Be Told. I am only half way through the book, but one of the ideas in it is that you have to read your past in order to write your future. He is not advocating that we have complete control over our destiny, but instead that we should take some responsibility in the direction of our life, a "co-authorship" with God.
Along with these concepts, Allender presents the idea of a life mission statement constructed based on the themes God has woven into our past and present. While hearing about this from Allender, I was also talking about school mission statements in one of my classes. I have come to the (temporary) conclusion that I would like to write a personal mission statement, but also that I would like to consider the mission statement as something fluid that will change to some degree with the seasons of life.
In my reading of late, in Hebrews, I was struck by the content of Hebrews 13 and how it has some great principles to weave into a personal mission statement. I thought I might share it with you all to think about as well. My gathered "concepts" will be written in bold type, and are not part of the Scripture.
1 Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters.
Love (and show love to) your fellow believers intentionally and unconditionally.
2 Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.
Practice hospitality to the extreme; don't limit your house guests to family and friends.
3 Continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.
Hold the persecuted church in your heart--and as you can, do something to help. At the same time, lament the suffering of all, around the world.
4 Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.
Remember that marriage is sacred; it represents Christ and the church and is to be treated with care.
5 Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said,“Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”[a] 6 So we say with confidence,“The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.
What can mere mortals do to me?”[b]
Be content with what you have, because what you have is the greatest gift of all: the presence of the Most High dwelling inside of you. Do not let yourself get too caught up in the pleasures of this world.
7 Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. 8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
Seek out and learn from mentors. Make sure those mentors are clearly emulating Jesus Christ, that he is the constant.
9 Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by eating ceremonial foods, which is of no benefit to those who do so.
Know your Bible and what you believe. Hold on like crazy to grace.
10 We have an altar from which those who minister at the tabernacle have no right to eat. 11 The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp. 12 And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. 13 Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. 14 For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.
Remember that we are a people set apart, but that the only reason we are different from any other is the blood of Jesus Christ. Praise Jesus who suffered and died for us! We will, as aliens, be treated as aliens--and so we remember who we are.
15 Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name.
Confess Him! At every corner! In every conversation that provide opportunity, tell of His goodness!
16 And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.
Love in action, for the purpose of pleasing your Lord.
17 Have confidence in your leaders and submit to their authority, because they keep watch over you as those who must give an account. Do this so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no benefit to you.
Obey authority out of respect for God.
18 Pray for us. We are sure that we have a clear conscience and desire to live honorably in every way. 19 I particularly urge you to pray so that I may be restored to you soon.
Pray for missionaries and ministry workers--for spiritual, physical, and emotional needs.
20 Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, 21 equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
We can confidently attempt to live a life like this because God will equip us to do it! We are operating out of grace, through Jesus Christ, so we are free to try and fail! We can tackle anything now, without fear.
AMEN.
I want to live something like that, and I aim to try.
Along with these concepts, Allender presents the idea of a life mission statement constructed based on the themes God has woven into our past and present. While hearing about this from Allender, I was also talking about school mission statements in one of my classes. I have come to the (temporary) conclusion that I would like to write a personal mission statement, but also that I would like to consider the mission statement as something fluid that will change to some degree with the seasons of life.
In my reading of late, in Hebrews, I was struck by the content of Hebrews 13 and how it has some great principles to weave into a personal mission statement. I thought I might share it with you all to think about as well. My gathered "concepts" will be written in bold type, and are not part of the Scripture.
1 Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters.
Love (and show love to) your fellow believers intentionally and unconditionally.
2 Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.
Practice hospitality to the extreme; don't limit your house guests to family and friends.
3 Continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.
Hold the persecuted church in your heart--and as you can, do something to help. At the same time, lament the suffering of all, around the world.
4 Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.
Remember that marriage is sacred; it represents Christ and the church and is to be treated with care.
5 Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said,“Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”[a] 6 So we say with confidence,“The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.
What can mere mortals do to me?”[b]
Be content with what you have, because what you have is the greatest gift of all: the presence of the Most High dwelling inside of you. Do not let yourself get too caught up in the pleasures of this world.
7 Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. 8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
Seek out and learn from mentors. Make sure those mentors are clearly emulating Jesus Christ, that he is the constant.
9 Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by eating ceremonial foods, which is of no benefit to those who do so.
Know your Bible and what you believe. Hold on like crazy to grace.
10 We have an altar from which those who minister at the tabernacle have no right to eat. 11 The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp. 12 And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. 13 Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. 14 For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.
Remember that we are a people set apart, but that the only reason we are different from any other is the blood of Jesus Christ. Praise Jesus who suffered and died for us! We will, as aliens, be treated as aliens--and so we remember who we are.
15 Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name.
Confess Him! At every corner! In every conversation that provide opportunity, tell of His goodness!
16 And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.
Love in action, for the purpose of pleasing your Lord.
17 Have confidence in your leaders and submit to their authority, because they keep watch over you as those who must give an account. Do this so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no benefit to you.
Obey authority out of respect for God.
18 Pray for us. We are sure that we have a clear conscience and desire to live honorably in every way. 19 I particularly urge you to pray so that I may be restored to you soon.
Pray for missionaries and ministry workers--for spiritual, physical, and emotional needs.
20 Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, 21 equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
We can confidently attempt to live a life like this because God will equip us to do it! We are operating out of grace, through Jesus Christ, so we are free to try and fail! We can tackle anything now, without fear.
AMEN.
I want to live something like that, and I aim to try.
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