I was reading in 2 Corinthians the other day and I stumbled across these verses (4:5-7) that I've read before, but really only now began to fully sink in:
For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.
Wow. Stop and think about it for a minute. The God who spoke into the dark void at the beginning of time and said "Let there be light." The God who created that light out of nothing, made His light to shine in our hearts. He gave us the glory of Himself through the face of His son Jesus Christ. He has placed that light in our hearts...and here's my favorite part...He placed it in us. Jars of clay. Temporary, fragile, human bodies, so that none of it could be to our credit. That it can only be from Him and Him alone. It goes on to say in the following verses that even if we face trouble and persecution in our human bodies that we will not be struck down. I love this part in verses 16-18:
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
No matter what may happen to our temporary jars of clay, that light that He has placed inside of us, what makes us truly alive, will never be destroyed. No one can take that away from us.
Does that not just make you want to fall on your knees and bow before the Maker of Heaven and Earth?
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Recently God has been "re-challenging" me on the subject of carrying others burdens. For some reason God made me a good listener. I love to be there for people and many times I can feel the feeling behind the words they are saying. This happens more so with some people than others, especially people that I feel like God has connected me with for some special reason. While this has caused me some pain in the past, I have definitely come to see it as a gift from God. In the Bible it says we are to "bear one another's burdens." In 2 Corinthians 1:3-6 it speaks about sharing the comfort we receive from Christ during our times of trouble with others who need comfort in troubles down the road.
The problem comes when I try to carry those burdens on my own. A while back, when I was in college, I went through a really dark time where I felt so anxious all the time. I was carrying around the burdens of so many people I loved and I didn't know how to handle it. I read the book Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers and in it there is a character who talks about keeping a worry box. She writes down all her worries and places them in the box and gives them to God to hold. There's a part in the book where she opens up the box and starts to read her worries from the past year or so and nearly every single one of them had been taken care of by God in some way. God told me that I was carrying too many people's burdens on my own back instead of taking them on and then handing them off to Him. I started keeping a worry box too. At the end of that school year, when I was moving out of my apartment, I opened that box and started reading. God had taken care of EVERY SINGLE PEICE OF PAPER. I sat bawling on my floor as a feeling of the great love He has for His children came flooding over me.
Recently I've found myself slipping into my old habits of trying to take care of people's pain on my own. God has quickly reminded me though, of that lesson that He taught me back in college. I need to give those things over to Him, and then I can rejoice in the fact that people trust me, instead of seeing it as a burden. I can freely share the comfort that Christ has given me through trials in my life with those that I love so dearly...those that HE loves even infinitely more!
The problem comes when I try to carry those burdens on my own. A while back, when I was in college, I went through a really dark time where I felt so anxious all the time. I was carrying around the burdens of so many people I loved and I didn't know how to handle it. I read the book Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers and in it there is a character who talks about keeping a worry box. She writes down all her worries and places them in the box and gives them to God to hold. There's a part in the book where she opens up the box and starts to read her worries from the past year or so and nearly every single one of them had been taken care of by God in some way. God told me that I was carrying too many people's burdens on my own back instead of taking them on and then handing them off to Him. I started keeping a worry box too. At the end of that school year, when I was moving out of my apartment, I opened that box and started reading. God had taken care of EVERY SINGLE PEICE OF PAPER. I sat bawling on my floor as a feeling of the great love He has for His children came flooding over me.
Recently I've found myself slipping into my old habits of trying to take care of people's pain on my own. God has quickly reminded me though, of that lesson that He taught me back in college. I need to give those things over to Him, and then I can rejoice in the fact that people trust me, instead of seeing it as a burden. I can freely share the comfort that Christ has given me through trials in my life with those that I love so dearly...those that HE loves even infinitely more!
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Do it Lord!
I see Your glory covering the earth, Lord
Just as the waters are covering the sea
I see the millions coming to salvation
I see revival fire in the land
I see the lost and nameless ones remembered
I see the widows shouting out your praise
I see the friendless loved and celebrated
Orphans fulfilling, Lord, Your calling on their lives.
Do it Lord, do it Lord,
Do it Lord we are praying,
Do it Lord, do it that your glory may be seen.
I see forgiveness overtaking hatred
Pride and prejudice now giving way to love
I see depression replaced with joy and gladness
And Satan’s lies now bowing to the Truth.
Do it Lord, do it Lord,
Do it Lord we are praying,
Do it Lord, do it that your glory may be seen.
This is our prayer oh God
This is our desperate cry
In these days that we’re living now
Let Your kingdom come let your will be done.
I see the brokenness of families brought to wholeness
I see the prodigals running home to You
Father’s hearts now turning toward their children
And the children’s hearts turning toward their father’s.
I see Your Church rising up in power
Laying down their lives in unity and love
I hear the sounds of every tribe and nation
Giving glory to Jesus Christ the Son.
-"Do It Lord" by Tommy Walker
One of my new favorite songs! The words are so prophetic and powerful.
Just as the waters are covering the sea
I see the millions coming to salvation
I see revival fire in the land
I see the lost and nameless ones remembered
I see the widows shouting out your praise
I see the friendless loved and celebrated
Orphans fulfilling, Lord, Your calling on their lives.
Do it Lord, do it Lord,
Do it Lord we are praying,
Do it Lord, do it that your glory may be seen.
I see forgiveness overtaking hatred
Pride and prejudice now giving way to love
I see depression replaced with joy and gladness
And Satan’s lies now bowing to the Truth.
Do it Lord, do it Lord,
Do it Lord we are praying,
Do it Lord, do it that your glory may be seen.
This is our prayer oh God
This is our desperate cry
In these days that we’re living now
Let Your kingdom come let your will be done.
I see the brokenness of families brought to wholeness
I see the prodigals running home to You
Father’s hearts now turning toward their children
And the children’s hearts turning toward their father’s.
I see Your Church rising up in power
Laying down their lives in unity and love
I hear the sounds of every tribe and nation
Giving glory to Jesus Christ the Son.
-"Do It Lord" by Tommy Walker
One of my new favorite songs! The words are so prophetic and powerful.
Saturday, August 14, 2010
"...to forgive is to know. He who loves, sees."
"...to forgive is to know. He who loves, sees."
-C.S. Lewis
Some people say that love is blind. God is not blind though, and He is Love. He sees every single thing that makes up who we are...past, present and future. He sees the lies, He sees the hypocrasy, He sees the wrong motives, the insecurity, the doubt, the bad attitudes, perversion, and just plain jealousy. But He loves us anyway. Infinitely more...anyway. He also sees who we were created to be on earth and even into eternity. He treats us as those people. He loved us so much that He gave His son to die so that we could be united with Him, inspite of our fragile, sinful, human ways. If we could treat others with even a speck of the respect that He treats us with, to see them with even a glimmer of the brilliant picture He paints of them, then I believe the church would be more unified and effective (in the way God intended) than we could ever dream of.
The problem is, (and I am definitely writing this to myself as well as anyone else,) we can't see people that way. In our humanity the faults of others scream to us so much louder than the lovely things. The only way we can see people through God's omniscient eyes is by asking Him to give us eyes like His. We have to ask the Holy Spirit to guide us, and we have to trust Him when He is doing that.
Like C.S. Lewis said, we can't be blind to the faults...that's just ignorance, but we can ask God to help us love inspite of those faults, remembering that we too are incredibly faulty by nature. And I'm not just talking "I love them, but I don't like them" love here. To me that's another saying that is often taken as wisdom but is absolutely false. We like to say those kinds of things because we don't want to admit that we aren't feeling love for someone. That would point out that we are in the wrong somehow. How would you feel if God said to you, "I love you, but I don't like you." To me it would be a slap in the face. It wouldn't really feel like love at all to me. I'd rather not have that kind of love. God loves us and delights in our company. He likes us.
I had a dream last week. It was the most terrible but beautiful dream I have ever had in my life. I dreamed I was looking at Jesus, laying on the cross on the ground, just having been nailed to it, but not yet raised up. He was broken, mauled, and bleeding profusely. He barely looked human. It was terrifying to me, because no movie scene could ever fully depict what He looked like there in my dream. I wasn't afraid though. I felt calm and at peace. I heard His voice saying to me, "I did this...I did this for all people, so that they could be free."
The image still haunts me in a wonderful way. I see it often throughout the day, and I am reminded that what I saw there is the one thing that life is truly all about. How can we take that image, and the undeserved grace that it bestows upon us, and carry it to those around us? I wish I knew exactly how the answer to that question would look, lived out in everyday life. I don't though. I do, however, believe that the answer comes in humbly and completely giving your eyes, your speech, your actions, your decisions, your hopes and dreams over to the One who who is Perfection. The One who loved us all enough to give Himself over to what I saw in that dream.
-C.S. Lewis
Some people say that love is blind. God is not blind though, and He is Love. He sees every single thing that makes up who we are...past, present and future. He sees the lies, He sees the hypocrasy, He sees the wrong motives, the insecurity, the doubt, the bad attitudes, perversion, and just plain jealousy. But He loves us anyway. Infinitely more...anyway. He also sees who we were created to be on earth and even into eternity. He treats us as those people. He loved us so much that He gave His son to die so that we could be united with Him, inspite of our fragile, sinful, human ways. If we could treat others with even a speck of the respect that He treats us with, to see them with even a glimmer of the brilliant picture He paints of them, then I believe the church would be more unified and effective (in the way God intended) than we could ever dream of.
The problem is, (and I am definitely writing this to myself as well as anyone else,) we can't see people that way. In our humanity the faults of others scream to us so much louder than the lovely things. The only way we can see people through God's omniscient eyes is by asking Him to give us eyes like His. We have to ask the Holy Spirit to guide us, and we have to trust Him when He is doing that.
Like C.S. Lewis said, we can't be blind to the faults...that's just ignorance, but we can ask God to help us love inspite of those faults, remembering that we too are incredibly faulty by nature. And I'm not just talking "I love them, but I don't like them" love here. To me that's another saying that is often taken as wisdom but is absolutely false. We like to say those kinds of things because we don't want to admit that we aren't feeling love for someone. That would point out that we are in the wrong somehow. How would you feel if God said to you, "I love you, but I don't like you." To me it would be a slap in the face. It wouldn't really feel like love at all to me. I'd rather not have that kind of love. God loves us and delights in our company. He likes us.
I had a dream last week. It was the most terrible but beautiful dream I have ever had in my life. I dreamed I was looking at Jesus, laying on the cross on the ground, just having been nailed to it, but not yet raised up. He was broken, mauled, and bleeding profusely. He barely looked human. It was terrifying to me, because no movie scene could ever fully depict what He looked like there in my dream. I wasn't afraid though. I felt calm and at peace. I heard His voice saying to me, "I did this...I did this for all people, so that they could be free."
The image still haunts me in a wonderful way. I see it often throughout the day, and I am reminded that what I saw there is the one thing that life is truly all about. How can we take that image, and the undeserved grace that it bestows upon us, and carry it to those around us? I wish I knew exactly how the answer to that question would look, lived out in everyday life. I don't though. I do, however, believe that the answer comes in humbly and completely giving your eyes, your speech, your actions, your decisions, your hopes and dreams over to the One who who is Perfection. The One who loved us all enough to give Himself over to what I saw in that dream.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Flexi-blay
Sunday evening my sister Kara and I decided we wanted to drive to a town about half and hour away to visit the church of Pastor Tad, Megan, Matt, and Heather, four of our El Salvador team members. Lance (another team member from our church) and his sister Kayla had been with them all day, helping out with children's church. We invited Ronnie (our "heart brother") to come with us and since we had been housesitting just down the street from him all week, and he doesn't get good phone reception in his house, we just stopped by his house right before we needed to leave to pick him up. There was a miscommunication, so he didn't have time to change out of his human video practice clothes (karate pants and a grey t-shirt.) So basically we looked like a pretty ragamuffin group.
We were about 30 min. late to the service and when we walked in, Megan came out to meet us. Heather was singing a solo in the service and we distracted her by looking through the windows in the sanctuary door. She didn't miss a beat though! She and Matt were totally surprised to see us. Megan keeps a good secret.
When we walked in, Pastor Tad was leading the service, and he called us up to the front and asked us all to give a testimony of what God had done in our lives and on the trip. So there we were, in our old jeans and t-shirts, Ronnie looking like he just rolled out of bed, having to get up on stage and speak to everyone. God does have quite a sense of humor!!! I was able to share about Cambodia. Definitely the most spur-of-the-moment speaking engagement I've ever had.
Kara shared her testimony, and afterwards she prayed with a girl who had been dealing with a lot of stuff in her life. It was definitely a "God appointment." I can't tell you how proud I am of my sister. She's my best friend, and even though she's younger, I look up to her for her determination, and her ability to speak the truth over people's lives.
Ronnie encouraged us all to minister in our own community. He shared stories of how God has used him to speak to strangers in stores and on the street. I know he really challenges me to listen closer to the voice of God and obey. Though I didn't grow up with him in my house, I feel like I've known him for years, and I'm as proud of him as I would be my own flesh and blood brother, if I had one. I think I have a lot to learn from him.
After the service we went out to eat at a pizzaria and had some great fellowship with our "family". I was thinking the whole time what a privilege and a blessing it is to be a part of the Body of Christ. God has rocked my heart and my perception of Him, of missions trips... of the church, in the days coming back from El Salvador. That kind of fellowship and reliance on Him really CAN carry over into your "real life" after a short term missions trip, if you're a willing vessel for His change.
I'm praying and waiting for Cambodia. Can't wait to be there...but at the same time, there are so many people to love, and so much to experience with God right here in my own home until I get there.
I love you all...may you experience, as much as humanly possible, the riches of His expansive love, every minute of every day... until He returns.
Jennifer
We were about 30 min. late to the service and when we walked in, Megan came out to meet us. Heather was singing a solo in the service and we distracted her by looking through the windows in the sanctuary door. She didn't miss a beat though! She and Matt were totally surprised to see us. Megan keeps a good secret.
When we walked in, Pastor Tad was leading the service, and he called us up to the front and asked us all to give a testimony of what God had done in our lives and on the trip. So there we were, in our old jeans and t-shirts, Ronnie looking like he just rolled out of bed, having to get up on stage and speak to everyone. God does have quite a sense of humor!!! I was able to share about Cambodia. Definitely the most spur-of-the-moment speaking engagement I've ever had.
Kara shared her testimony, and afterwards she prayed with a girl who had been dealing with a lot of stuff in her life. It was definitely a "God appointment." I can't tell you how proud I am of my sister. She's my best friend, and even though she's younger, I look up to her for her determination, and her ability to speak the truth over people's lives.
Ronnie encouraged us all to minister in our own community. He shared stories of how God has used him to speak to strangers in stores and on the street. I know he really challenges me to listen closer to the voice of God and obey. Though I didn't grow up with him in my house, I feel like I've known him for years, and I'm as proud of him as I would be my own flesh and blood brother, if I had one. I think I have a lot to learn from him.
After the service we went out to eat at a pizzaria and had some great fellowship with our "family". I was thinking the whole time what a privilege and a blessing it is to be a part of the Body of Christ. God has rocked my heart and my perception of Him, of missions trips... of the church, in the days coming back from El Salvador. That kind of fellowship and reliance on Him really CAN carry over into your "real life" after a short term missions trip, if you're a willing vessel for His change.
I'm praying and waiting for Cambodia. Can't wait to be there...but at the same time, there are so many people to love, and so much to experience with God right here in my own home until I get there.
I love you all...may you experience, as much as humanly possible, the riches of His expansive love, every minute of every day... until He returns.
Jennifer
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