Jun 12, 2013
“By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” – John 13:35
Love for one another. It sounds like an easy task, especially if you are in a good mood, the person you are with doesn’t annoy you, and things are going as planned. However, we are not always in the best of moods, maybe the person you are with rubs you the wrong way, and the circumstances you find yourself in may be chaotic. How do you love someone then?
Lately I’ve been learning how to love people when I don’t feel like it, or would rather be alone. See, Christ asks us to sacrifice ourselves, and serve others in His name. If I am loving others with HIS love, then He will continue to replenish it, and as I continue to pursue Him, His love will automatically flow to others.
Love is not a feeling that comes and goes, it is a way of life, a choice. I certainly don’t “feel” like loving my enemies, but the Lord says to do so. It isn’t easy, but it is a commitment. It’s a full time job to love others, finding ways to serve them, listening when they need an ear, not avoiding them when you want alone time.
It is a hard lesson to learn, but I’m finding that when I choose to allow the Lord to love others through me, even when I don’t feel like it, it’s rewarding to see the other person smile. Sometimes they won’t even know it’s you that wrote that note, that you did the dishes because you know it’s less stressful for that person to live in a clean apartment. But really, we don’t perform acts of love for ourselves to get praise, we do it so that the Lord can love others and receive all the glory.
Anyways, thank you for listening. I am still in the process of learning this lesson, and am finding that unity between the Body of Christ is much more appealing than the separation that occurs from unbroken people.
Please pray for me that I don’t let my own selfishness get in the way of loving my brothers and sisters, my family, friends, and those around me. I will be praying for you too.
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Apr 23, 2013
This week the latest School of Discipleship class graduated. It got me to thinking about my year and everything that went on. Things were definitely challenging throughout the year. You definitely have to die to yourself, (you think they were joking when they put that on the brochure?) you have to follow a fairly strict schedule, you have to be disciplined…but the worst thing was having to go away. If I could have every one of my friends go throught the School of Discipleship I would. It was an amazing experience that I’ll never forget and an awesome time of growth, and the graduation made me think of the toughest ones. Besides one failure, the worst thing was was saying goodbye to those at Gospel For Asia.
Top 5 things about being in the School of Discipleship
- Being taught how to live like Jesus by seeing the example of older brothers and sisters in the Lord.
- Times of worship, including personal prayer and Bible reading, as well as corporate prayer and worship through teaching and music.
- The community of believers that surround you – insta-family!
- Going to Asia and seeing the mission field! (Boy, that’s too much to try to explain in one bullet point.)
- Class room times, home work, etc. (The theory is taught and you see how it works in those around you.)
So, as I was saying, the hardest part was leaving. When I thought about writing this I then realized that it’s also one of the best things because as much as God loves putting us through those seasons of teaching, He wants us to continue to grow because it’s our choice. We can do things because we have homework assignments or because we really want to. When you graduate and go home you get to really choose who you’re going to do those things for.
But good news! Not everyone has to leave. 🙂 I’m glad to know that many of this past class will be coming back on full time staff. Congratulations January class of 2012!
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Apr 18, 2013
There are many times in my life when I think I have learned as much as I can in a certain area, and since God has grown me and healed me, I don’t ever need to come back to that area. Yes, the Lord has healed me, and I’m not saying that His healing wasn’t perfect and what I needed at that time, but there is always room for growth and it’s my own pride to say I don’t need to grow anymore in that area.
Recently I have started a Bible Study. Before starting this I was a little weary because I know the Lord has healed me from my past and I’m moving forward in my relationship with Him because of it. I was under the impression that since I know the Lord has healed me, I’m invincible (in a sense) to what may come up regarding my past. But that was my pride speaking, and a lie from the enemy in his attempt to keep me from seeking the Lord continuously in that area of my life and continuously taking each thought captive that I may stay in the light and not stray from the Truth I believe.
So far in the study I have learned about the wrong and right guilt and shame, about righteous and unrighteous anger, and more about Jesus’ anguish on the cross as He willingly laid down His life for me.
I always find it interesting how the Lord speaks into my life. I’m not sure if it’s because I have a thick skull to get through, or if it’s just His way of solidifying a certain message, but He always relates everything in my life to what He is showing me. So, I am learning about all these things at the same time, going through trials that relate to the things I’m learning, and then reading about the life of Jesus and how much He loves me, all at the same time. I guess that learning things in threes to make it permanent really is valid! 🙂
Anyways, that is where I am right now and I’m sure the Lord has more for me to learn through these studies. Please pray for my heart to be open and soft to His molding and teaching. Also that I will have patience with myself as I am a slow learner sometimes.
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Jan 18, 2013
Today was an interesting day. Starting off at 1AM I woke up and couldn’t really get back to sleep, save maybe a few 15 minute naps here and there, mainly just staring at the ceiling thinking and praying and such. Around 8:30ish I got kinda bored of my attempts to sleep that I got up and decided to check all the boxes of my Xbox, Playstation, and Wii games to try to locate some of the ones that were missing. I found one!! HUZZAH! At this time my roommate had woken up (another roommate was already at work), and she lay on the couch as I cleaned my gerbil cage and talked about potentially going to check out all the yardsales in the area (since we were up early enough and had been talking about doing that for a while now). My roommate, barely awake attempted to wake herself up a bit more, got dressed, and I toasted some bagels for us and we were off to check out garage sales at around 9:21AM.
We found quite a few garage sales, but as we were looking for bookshelves or dining room chairs, we were kinda out of luck. However, we did discover a few older games, a book, two rubber duckies, and after a stop at the ReSale, I got a little book holder for my bathroom and a few reeeeally old CD-Roms (all for under $10 total). Score! We also had the chance to say hi to a few Gospel For Asia people who were also having a garage sale.
Nearing the end of my roommate’s energy levels, we stopped by Chick-fil-A (since we knew we would be craving it tomorrow on Sunday, but it’s not open on Sundays… sad!!) refilled our energy and had some time to chat and catch up for a bit. After a few hours, we headed back home and it was only 2PM!! So productive for a Saturday! A little time passed and two of my roommate’s mom came over and I went to clean/organize/get rid of/and consolidate all the stuff I have, while listening to the audio Bible on my iPod. I consolidated a LOT! and got rid of a LOT! and discovered some really cool letters from friends and some nice pictures, and some stuff that I forgot I had, like my Pokemon Card collection, and learned a lot from God’s Word. 🙂
So now my room is clean, stuff is organized, an Up for Grabs pile is accumulating in our living room, and I’m just now starting to feel tired. Where did this energy come from?? WHY DID I WAKE UP AT 1AM???! Praise God for all the productiveness and for catching up with friends. 🙂
I wonder what will happen in the next two hours or so before bed… hm… the possibilities are endless!!
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Nov 19, 2012
So, I’ve heard this I don’t know how many times, that your vertical relationship with the Lord is more important than your horizontal relationships with those around you. Which makes perfect sense! However this last time I heard it mentioned something clicked.
I had a vivid image in my mind of an arrow going upward as I continue to pursue the Lord. And I realized that the higher I go up in that relationship with the Lord, the farther out I can reach those around me as His Spirit flows out of my life.
Think about throwing a ball from a tall building. You can throw it further out the higher you go. So the more I build my relationship with the Lord, the more people He can impact through me!
So yes, my vertical relationship with the Lord is way more important, and He can reach so many more people the more I get to know Him.
Praise God for that. 🙂
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