Oct 5, 2010
“God is our refuge and strength a very present help in trouble.”
This is a verse that my little sister wrote out for me on a piece of cardboard before I left home. It has been sitting on my desk since I got to Gospel For Asia but it was only today – more than a month later – when I realized that this is what God has been teaching me for the whole time I’ve been here. Whenever I mess up or feel homesick, God is with me. I think that He has let me mess up so much while I’m here simply so I will rely on Him and remember that I am here for His glory – not because I am qualified. He is always so near to me. I am learning to listen to His voice and to accept His grace and peace.
His grace is His loving favor even when we continually mess up. He cares for me so much that he made a way for my sins to be forgiven. When I would be guilty before His throne – unable to have a relationship with Him – doomed to eternal hell, He sent a sacrifice. His son died for me that I might stand before him even with my imperfections. He can no longer see that I am not perfect.
Matt said in class this week that often we go before God and ask Him “How can You love me when I have done this sin?” He said that God just looks at us and says “Why are you bringing that up again? I distinctly remember forgetting that.” Our God keeps no record of our wrongs or our shortcomings. He only wants us to be able to live life to the fullest through being made into the likeness of His Son.
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Oct 4, 2010
Psalms 23
A psalm of David.
23:1 The Lord is my shepherd,
I lack nothing.
23:2 He takes me to lush pastures,
he leads me to refreshing water.
23:3 He restores my strength.
He leads me down the right paths
for the sake of his reputation.
23:4 Even when I must walk through the darkest valley,
I fear no danger, for you are with me;
your rod and your staff reassure me.
23:5 You prepare a feast before me
in plain sight of my enemies.
You refresh my head with oil;
my cup is completely full.
23:6 Surely your goodness and faithfulness will pursue me all my days,
and I will live in the Lord’s house for the rest of my life.
(NET)
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Oct 1, 2010
”Our greatest fear as individuals…should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life that don’t really matter!” ~Tim Kizziar
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Oct 1, 2010
It’s been a busy few months! Between School of Discipleship graduation, a support trip back home, training for my new job, and new staff classes just beginning, I have definitely been learning a lot about dependence on the Lord.
I find my self becoming easily stressed out and overwhelmed when I have so many things going on that I fail to even look to God for any help or answers. I tend to start becoming so busy that I no longer even make time for daily devotions to seek the Lord and look for His hand in these things.
I realized this is where I was a little over a month ago as I sat listening to a sermon about spiritual maturity. The basic message was that when we fail, the main sign of spiritual maturity is to run TO the Lord and the main sign of spiritual immaturity is to run AWAY from Him. I was able to fairly easily recognize myself in the latter. That realization was huge for me because it brought me running back to the Lord and rediscovering the rest that He offers.
So rather than trying to balance a thousand things during the day and then just coming back to the apartment to veg and watch TV, I am now striving to go before the Lord with my free time and be filled with His peace that He truly is sovereign and all these things I am worried about and dealing with are under His control. I like that.
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Sep 30, 2010
Some thoughts on different teachings over the past two months…
“For thus the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, has said, ‘In repentance and rest you will be saved, in quietness and trust is your strength.’ But you were not willing . . .” (Isaiah 30:15). “ . . . ‘Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind and makes flesh his strength, and whose heart turns away from the LORD. For he will be like a bush in the desert and will not see when prosperity comes, but will live in stony wastes in the wilderness, a land of salt without inhabitant’” (Jeremiah 17:5-6).
Monday, Thursday, and Friday morning prayer, Tuesday night prayer, and Friday night prayer, and daily we work and pray to see the lost multitudes of Asia reached. But the trap in my life is to be doing the work of God, wholehearted, and yet I miss God Himself. I can easily pray for the Dalits of India in all their depravity and be strong and bold in my words, why I’ve done it 100 times the past month, yet not do it in His strength. We can lead a Bible study, or children’s lesson, and the kids behave and the lesson was composed and we spoke clearly. But in all that fine glorious business could have MISSED GOD HIMSELF!
Jesus did not look to lead the masses of crowds to Himself but looked for individuals. He would say turn away from your selfish and evil ways, take up your cross and follow me. Jesus all to well knew and saw those people who wanted some part of Him because His ministry was attractive and had a good reputation. As Keith Green put it, Americans are the people who always pray, “Bless me, bless me,” and let the culture dictate what is righteous and “how much” God you can have. Jesus said, “ . . . unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (John 12:24). Paul said he pressed on, leaving EVERYTHING behind, his successes and failures.
I must reject any notion that I have anything to offer God. God said if we repent and rest in Him we will be saved. It is so simple. He said our strength would be our quietness and trust in Him. I don’t want to be sacrificing my life for the lost but come to Heaven and find it was all fruitless work done in my own flesh. K.P. Yohannan challenged us the other night, “When was the last time you spent an hour on your face before God in quietness?” If we are just running around being busy outside the strength and rest of Christ then Satan is just waiting for the time he will yank the rug out on us (Daniel 7:25). “Self-centered Christians cannot and will not respond to Christ because they are not submitted to Him as their head” (Road to Reality, p30). I must let my self-centeredness die and realize that our strengths and weakness are not what decide what God can do in my life.
Application for me:
- Stop running here and there for a solution that only requires quieting ourselves and waiting in prayer. SEEK GOD FIRST.
- Stop feeding ourselves with unspiritual things (Things that may take my time away from the Lord). Isaiah 30:15.
- Work to discipline the flesh. It isn’t by trying to be more spiritual to win over the flesh but by constantly praying and seeking God to change and convert the flesh.
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Sep 30, 2010
Every single night as we stand in the bathroom brushing our teeth, we see geckos on the bathroom window. There may be one, or two, and sometimes even three.
For some reason, the consistent sight of their underbellies through the glass reminds me of God’s faithfulness.
Not only that, but he uses the delightful sight to help me remain disciplined; the only way I get to see His handiwork is if I floss my teeth every night.
I am thankful that I serve a God who is able to use the silliest things to remind me of His constant presence and provision in my life, and that He has a sense of humor.
😉
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