As mentioned, this is not quite a Bible Study as I normally would do it... really it's a testimony of something way cool God did for me last night/early this morning, and I wanted to share it.
So I'm going to tell this as best I can while being exceptionally vague. There's an acquaintance of mine and I found out a while ago that they are having some major crazy medical problems and it didn't sound good AT ALL. As I am a forgetful person by nature, I programmed an alarm into my phone to remember to pray for him before I went to bed. For almost a week now I've been praying fervently and specifically for a healing miracle that could only be attributed to God for His glory.
So last night, same routine as always. Saying my prayers, spend a little extra time on this one as always... only I end my prayers with a little something to the effect of, "God, will you please shake me out of this complacency?" And then I try to go to sleep. It was about 10:30.
At approximately ONE IN THE FREAKING MORNING I get up, open my window and just start staring outside because I cannot sleep for the life of me. Suddenly I remember that at a missionary training I went to years ago they told us that sometimes God would wake you up at night if He wanted to talk to you. So I'm like, Ok God, let's chat. Suddenly I get this overwhelming feeling that I need to pray for this acquaintance of mine NOW. God had me on my face, and then my knees, for quite some time after that. I found myself just begging for this kid's healing like I've never prayed for anything before. Finally, it seemed like I ran out of steam and sat up, but I was still real agitated and worried. God told me to check Luke, which led me to a Bible study which led me to Psalm 100. For those of you who don't know what it says (like me until very early this morning) it goes like this:
1 Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.
2 Worship the LORD with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.
3 Know that the LORD is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his.
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.
5 For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.
Then I just had this overwhelming peace, like everything was under control. I had done what I was supposed to, I could go back to bed.
Two great things came out of this. My acquaintance came home from the hospital today, first of all. Secondly, God answered my prayer and definitely gave me a shaking! I don't know if this means that regular Bible Studies will soon be posted... but it does mean that I'm getting the spiritual renewal I've been needing.
So I guess our lesson of the day is this: Prayer works, and it can do you as much good or more than the person you are praying for. So pray hard, pray big, and pray often! Oh, and I'd like to apologize for my last post. It was very whiny. Anyway, I love you all!!
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
Friday, May 1, 2009
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Sigh........
Yes, I know I haven't posted in over two months. No, I don't know why. Perhaps it's the waves of apathy that are crashing over my dazed frame... who knows. So if anyone actually ever reads this (debatable) please pray for me... I'm sort of feeling like last week's fish sticks: limp, cold, and not really good for much of anything.
I still love you, if there's anyone there. I really do! Sorry to have let you down.
xoxoxo
I still love you, if there's anyone there. I really do! Sorry to have let you down.
xoxoxo
Monday, February 16, 2009
No counting calories with THIS diet!!!
I know, I know!! It’s been over a month since I last shared with you, and I apologize… again. But I have finally discovered something that may prevent such massive delays in my blogging, and I hope it’s helpful to you as well. This week I want to talk to you about eating God.
I know, a rather odd opening statement, isn’t it? Well, let me explain starting with a little testimony. I spent this weekend at Acquire the Fire, a youth event with speakers, and bands, and great worship, and all this cool stuff. Well, they spent a good part of the first evening talking about getting saved, as per usual. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad they do this. I think it’s a great and necessary part of any youth event. However, it doesn’t always hold a lot of new revelation for me as I have heard most of it a million times. So I was sitting there listening, and I was just so excited for this great time of connecting with God and getting a jumpstart in my walk with Him. Then the thought occurred to me: why did I feel like I needed a jumpstart?
God had been pointing out the same things that I needed to improve for a long time. Every youth event He told me the same thing… it just took me several years to listen. Anyway, as I sat there thinking, I felt like I was finally doing everything right. I had cut out the cussing and the dirty jokes, I was loving people, He was a priority in my life, I was even reading my Bible after all this time! That was a biggie, spending the time with God. And I wondered… if I was finally doing everything that He had been telling me to do, if I was living on track for Him, then why did I depend on semi-annual events like this to give my relationship with Him the extra juice to keep me going? What was I still missing?
It finally hit me when the speaker referred to Jesus as the ‘Bread of Life’ and the ‘Living Water’. For those of you who don’t know, let me clue you in on what I’m talking about here.
It was right after Jesus fed the five thousand (you know, with the loaves and the fishes and all that), and the crowd was sort of following Him and asking for more miracles. Really, they were hungry and wanted to see Him do that multiplying trick again, so they said, “What miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? Our forefathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” So Jesus told them this: “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.” You can check out the whole story in John chapter 6.
Another time He and his disciples were passing through Samaria, and Jesus sat down by a well. A woman came by and He asked her for a drink of water. Since Jews did not associate with Samaritans, she was naturally quite surprised and asked Him what He was all about. In John 4:10-13, “Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water… Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.’”
So what does this mean? Is this saying that we should physically EAT Jesus? No. That, my dear children, is called cannibalism, and is in fact frowned upon in most societies. But think about it… how long can you live without food and water? It’s vital! It’s our sustenance, the thing that keeps us going. We sorta kinda need that stuff, don’t we? It’s saying the same thing about Jesus. Without Him, we are dead spiritually.
“Ok, ok.” You might be saying. “Haven’t we already covered spending time with God? You’ve mentioned this quite a lot in past studies.” Yes, I know. And I won’t lie, I thought I finally had this whole thing figured out. But let’s take it a step further with an analogy (I just love analogies and metaphors!).
How do you feel when you don’t eat? You’re sort of blah, not real energetic, maybe a little bit cranky? We get the same way when we’re dehydrated, right? Well, how strong and healthy would you be if you only took a few bites of food and a sip of water every day? You’d be pretty sickly. Would you be much better off if you chewed the food for a quick second, spit it back out and moved on with your day? No! You wouldn’t digest it, or get the good things your body needs from it. If this was your mealtime routine, could you then honestly say that you had eaten at all?
I think we often do the same thing when we read our Bible or spend time with God, don’t we? We take a few minutes in passing and read a verse or two, shoot up a prayer to bless old Aunt Betty, and claim to have done our devotions for the day. Or maybe we read a big chunk of scripture, then rattle off a long list of things you want God to take care of. Did we get anything out of those chapters we read? Do we even have the slightest clue what they were saying? If not, how can we apply it to our lives? And can we really call our babbling as time well spent? I certainly wouldn’t want my daily conversation with someone I cared about to consist entirely of a to-do list. And *gasp* I may actually want to add something to the conversation as well! If this is as far as we take it, how do we expect to get all the good things God has to tell us and do in us? I’ll tell you how… we don’t!
So we go on living like this, barely even attempting to feed our ravenous spiritual bellies… and then we attend an event. We go to camp, or to a rally, or whatever it is for you, and are presented with a varitable feast of God. We gorge ourselves on His presence and His word and His closeness, and go home feeling so refreshed. There’s a funny thing about eating a drinking though… you sort of have to do it again. But we go back to our old dietary habits, continue to be spiritually anorexic, and then wonder why we just don’t feel so fulfilled anymore.
Here’s another thought… if you starve yourself physically, how able are you to do the daily acts required of you? How easy is it for you to step beyond that and minister to the needs of others? Pretty tough. So why is it that we think we can starve spiritually and still be able to do good to those around us? How can we help others to understand Christ’s love when we are so spiritually weak and exhausted? That is not how we are called to be! We are called to be strong warriors for Christ! Can a fighter win the battle when he’s half-starved to death? No!!
To avoid redundancy, let me get to the point. Jesus tells us that when we come to Him, we will never hunger or thirst again. It’s sort of like a never-ending-all-you-can-eat buffet. A feast is always there, just waiting for us to dig in and enjoy! Why do we try to make do with such meager fare? Don’t wait until your next big event to stuff yourself with God…do it now! Trust me, you will feel so much better!!
So, that’s all for this week. Talk to you later my darlings!!
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
I know, a rather odd opening statement, isn’t it? Well, let me explain starting with a little testimony. I spent this weekend at Acquire the Fire, a youth event with speakers, and bands, and great worship, and all this cool stuff. Well, they spent a good part of the first evening talking about getting saved, as per usual. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad they do this. I think it’s a great and necessary part of any youth event. However, it doesn’t always hold a lot of new revelation for me as I have heard most of it a million times. So I was sitting there listening, and I was just so excited for this great time of connecting with God and getting a jumpstart in my walk with Him. Then the thought occurred to me: why did I feel like I needed a jumpstart?
God had been pointing out the same things that I needed to improve for a long time. Every youth event He told me the same thing… it just took me several years to listen. Anyway, as I sat there thinking, I felt like I was finally doing everything right. I had cut out the cussing and the dirty jokes, I was loving people, He was a priority in my life, I was even reading my Bible after all this time! That was a biggie, spending the time with God. And I wondered… if I was finally doing everything that He had been telling me to do, if I was living on track for Him, then why did I depend on semi-annual events like this to give my relationship with Him the extra juice to keep me going? What was I still missing?
It finally hit me when the speaker referred to Jesus as the ‘Bread of Life’ and the ‘Living Water’. For those of you who don’t know, let me clue you in on what I’m talking about here.
It was right after Jesus fed the five thousand (you know, with the loaves and the fishes and all that), and the crowd was sort of following Him and asking for more miracles. Really, they were hungry and wanted to see Him do that multiplying trick again, so they said, “What miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? Our forefathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” So Jesus told them this: “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.” You can check out the whole story in John chapter 6.
Another time He and his disciples were passing through Samaria, and Jesus sat down by a well. A woman came by and He asked her for a drink of water. Since Jews did not associate with Samaritans, she was naturally quite surprised and asked Him what He was all about. In John 4:10-13, “Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water… Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.’”
So what does this mean? Is this saying that we should physically EAT Jesus? No. That, my dear children, is called cannibalism, and is in fact frowned upon in most societies. But think about it… how long can you live without food and water? It’s vital! It’s our sustenance, the thing that keeps us going. We sorta kinda need that stuff, don’t we? It’s saying the same thing about Jesus. Without Him, we are dead spiritually.
“Ok, ok.” You might be saying. “Haven’t we already covered spending time with God? You’ve mentioned this quite a lot in past studies.” Yes, I know. And I won’t lie, I thought I finally had this whole thing figured out. But let’s take it a step further with an analogy (I just love analogies and metaphors!).
How do you feel when you don’t eat? You’re sort of blah, not real energetic, maybe a little bit cranky? We get the same way when we’re dehydrated, right? Well, how strong and healthy would you be if you only took a few bites of food and a sip of water every day? You’d be pretty sickly. Would you be much better off if you chewed the food for a quick second, spit it back out and moved on with your day? No! You wouldn’t digest it, or get the good things your body needs from it. If this was your mealtime routine, could you then honestly say that you had eaten at all?
I think we often do the same thing when we read our Bible or spend time with God, don’t we? We take a few minutes in passing and read a verse or two, shoot up a prayer to bless old Aunt Betty, and claim to have done our devotions for the day. Or maybe we read a big chunk of scripture, then rattle off a long list of things you want God to take care of. Did we get anything out of those chapters we read? Do we even have the slightest clue what they were saying? If not, how can we apply it to our lives? And can we really call our babbling as time well spent? I certainly wouldn’t want my daily conversation with someone I cared about to consist entirely of a to-do list. And *gasp* I may actually want to add something to the conversation as well! If this is as far as we take it, how do we expect to get all the good things God has to tell us and do in us? I’ll tell you how… we don’t!
So we go on living like this, barely even attempting to feed our ravenous spiritual bellies… and then we attend an event. We go to camp, or to a rally, or whatever it is for you, and are presented with a varitable feast of God. We gorge ourselves on His presence and His word and His closeness, and go home feeling so refreshed. There’s a funny thing about eating a drinking though… you sort of have to do it again. But we go back to our old dietary habits, continue to be spiritually anorexic, and then wonder why we just don’t feel so fulfilled anymore.
Here’s another thought… if you starve yourself physically, how able are you to do the daily acts required of you? How easy is it for you to step beyond that and minister to the needs of others? Pretty tough. So why is it that we think we can starve spiritually and still be able to do good to those around us? How can we help others to understand Christ’s love when we are so spiritually weak and exhausted? That is not how we are called to be! We are called to be strong warriors for Christ! Can a fighter win the battle when he’s half-starved to death? No!!
To avoid redundancy, let me get to the point. Jesus tells us that when we come to Him, we will never hunger or thirst again. It’s sort of like a never-ending-all-you-can-eat buffet. A feast is always there, just waiting for us to dig in and enjoy! Why do we try to make do with such meager fare? Don’t wait until your next big event to stuff yourself with God…do it now! Trust me, you will feel so much better!!
So, that’s all for this week. Talk to you later my darlings!!
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Sharing? Hmm, I think we missed that day in Kindergarten.
Praise the Lord, it’s up on time!! I hope you are all proud of me.
So last week we talked about being on fire for God. Remember our two examples of the lukewarm Christian and the passionate Christian? One of the things on the ‘on fire’ list was showing Christ to others. I thought we might expound upon that a little bit. So this week, let’s learn together about sharing Christ.
Some of you may be getting freaked out already. “Share Christ? But… that might require talking about Him… to my non-Christian friends!!!!” Ummm, yeah. Yeah, you may just have to do that. “You mean like… in school?” Yes. “Oh, come now! Are we certain that’s absolutely necessary? I mean, I’m not like a missionary or anything. SURELY God doesn’t need me to do that sort of thing.”
Oh, but He does. Well, He doesn’t need you… but guess what? He chose you. Don’t ask me why, but we are His plan for spreading His word about the Savior. Personally, I would have picked a more reliable medium, but He chose us as the couriers of His message. Don’t believe me? Fine, listen to what God says about it.
Luke 8:16- “No one lights a lamp and puts it under a bowl or under a bed. A lamp is always put on a lampstand, so that people who come into a house will see the light” Meaning, if Jesus has brought light to the darkness in your life, why on earth are you hiding it? Put it out where it can be seen, so others can benefit from the light you have!
Luke 9:1- “One day Jesus called together his twelve disciples… Then he sent them out to tell everyone about the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick.” He sent them out to tell EVERYONE!! Friends, strangers, cool people, the not-so-cool people, the smart, the stupid, the nice and the mean. Oh, and don’t think you are off the hook just because you aren’t one of the twelve. The definition of disciple is “a person who is a pupil or an adherent of the doctrines of another; follower”. So if that is what you are to Christ, then happy trails to you, my friend!
Acts 5:42- “Every day in the Temple and in people's homes they continued teaching the people and telling the Good News—that Jesus is the Christ.” Did you catch that? Every day! They were so thrilled with what God had done in their lives that they simply couldn’t stop talking about it to everybody! That’s how we are called to be! It’s not a chore, my darlings, but a privilege! Are you that excited about what God has done for you? Or are you more excited about the new ipod your mom gave you for Christmas? Before you answer, take a mental note of which you talked about more in this past week.
It also says in Matthew 28:19-20 “So you must go and make disciples of all nations. Baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Teach them to obey everything I have commanded you. And you can be sure that I am always with you, to the very end.” I want to dig into this verse a little bit deeper. It’s pretty straightforward though, isn’t it? You must go. Three little words, so often used in everyday conversation. Let’s take a look at them.
YOU must go: Hey you! Yeah, you with the face! I’m talking to you! This applies to all of us. That means you, too. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that you have to be something absolutely extraordinary to share the love of God. I mean, you think the disciples were such hot stuff? Peter had a temper the size of Peru, and he abandoned Jesus when He was arrested. Paul started his career by killing Christians, and even after his conversion he had a “thorn in his side” (although he doesn’t tell us what). James and John (not the Baptist) sent their mommy to ask Jesus if they could sit at the right and left hand of the Father. Even John the Baptist doubted if Jesus was the Messiah and sent some disciples to ask Him about it. Matthew was a tax collector and cheated people out of their money, and the majority of the disciples were relatively uneducated fishermen. So don’t worry if you haven’t been to Bible college. If you have the love of Jesus in your heart and the word of God in your hand, God’s going to use you!
You MUST go: “Umm, yeah, I’m not a really good public speaker or anything, and I’m sort of shy, so is it ok if I pass on this one?” Oh, of course! No problem, we wouldn’t want to make you uncomfortable or anything, you just sit back and let everyone else take care of it… JUST KIDDING! This was not a suggestion people! It’s not, “Oh, if you feel like it and if you get around to it and if it’s convenient for you, could you maybe go and make disciples for me?” NO! This is a commandment! It’s not like God is standing over us with a lightening bolt forcing us to go out into parts unknown to share His love or anything like that… but it says in Romans 10:14 “But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them?” Get it? If we don’t go and tell people, how can they ever know? If you had the cure for AIDS in your possession, would you keep it to yourself? No! You would tell people! You would do your utmost to get the news out! Here we have the cure for a thing worse than physical death, that is, ultimate separation from God our Father and an eternity in Hell, and WE DON’T TELL ANYBODY! Why? You think about it, and I’ll get to it in a moment.
You must GO: What does it take to ‘go’? Well, it usually involves moving. And moving starts with a single step. So, where do you need to start stepping to? I’m not saying we all need to hop a plane for China and start rescuing orphans. Maybe some of us do, I don’t know. But maybe you do need to take a step across the lunchroom to that kid who sits by himself every day. Maybe a step out of your way to greet that person you don’t generally like to acquaint yourself with. Maybe taking a step out of your routine is called for, so you can stop and talk to a friend that is hurting. Maybe God is calling you to step out of your comfort zone. I know it’s not always easy to live a godly life. I know it’s not always comfortable to talk about God. But do you think that maybe He might be worth giving it a shot? So, where are you going to go? And who are you going to?
So why don’t we all go more often, and more easily? Why is that we limit our references to Jesus to a little blip on a myspace page, if He even gets that much exposure? How is it that we can go through our days and allow it to remain unknown that He is the Lord of our lives? I of course can’t name all our reservations, but it seems that the main one is fear. Fear of rejection, fear of messing up, fear of being different, fear of seeming ‘intolerant’… ooh, intolerance is a biggie. Let’s be honest, these are real fears for some of us. Of course, the probability of these perceptions being put on us can be lessened by a little bit of common sense.
I was reading something the other day, and it had a list of life lessons. One of the items on the list was “The majority of people who want to share their religious ideas with you rarely want to hear yours.” It struck me that this statement is often all too true. Now I am not saying that we ought to adopt the idea that everything is true, and you can believe whatever you want to and always be correct… that is simply illogical. If you are discussing with someone and the two of you have contradicting or opposed ideas, either one of you is right and the other is wrong. Or, it could be that you are both wrong and someone else is right. Speak with confidence of what you know, but allow for the possibility that you may be in the wrong. If you want to talk about the hope that you have, why don’t you listen to what other people have to say? TALK to people about God, don’t beat them over the head with Him! Listening connects you to people, helps them to see that you are not a self-righteous freak, and is simply polite! Note: this also helps to dispel the idea that you are being intolerant and can lessen any feelings of rejection.
Still, no matter how nice or polite you are, some people will simply not like what you have to say. Yes, people might get mad at you. Yes, people might reject you. Yes, people might make fun of you or persecute you in some other way. But you know what? That’s ok! There is another part of that verse we didn’t look at yet… it’s the ending. Remember? It says, “And you can be sure that I am always with you, to the very end.” Catch that? God isn’t sending you out on your own here! He is always there with you!
Remember those people we mentioned that were talking about God every single day? Did I happen to mention that they had just been flogged for talking about Jesus? They knew full well that they could be taken custody of again at any time and put through terrible pain, but they kept on preaching because they knew that God was with them!
Throughout the centuries Christians have faced horrible persecution, been tortured and killed and taken from their families and imprisoned, just for talking about Jesus. But they never stopped telling! Why? Because they knew that GOD WAS WITH THEM! Even today this holds true in many places around the world, where Christians have to be very careful how they preach the gospel because of the danger, but you know what? They are still talking about it, because THEY KNOW GOD IS WITH THEM!!! Are you getting the picture? The majority of you, my readers, very likely live here in the United States with me (although not all of you). Thus, you enjoy immense freedom to talk about God to whomever you wish, whenever, wherever! I can type this blog in my basement with Beethoven blasting in my ears without fear for my life and my family! Why do we not take greater advantage of the freedom we have to share the greatest news ever? For fear? For fear of a little mockery? For fear that someone might call us a mean name? For fear of a little embarrassment? Oh, my friends! GOD is greater than our fear, GOD is greater than mockery, GOD is greater than humiliation, GOD is greater than the pain and the suffering and torment and the persecution, and no matter what our circumstances are we can press on in exclaiming about the hope and the life He has given us because GOD IS ALWAYS WITH US!
I know this was a long one guys, so I will end it here. But when you go to school or to work or wherever it is that you go tomorrow, I want you to be thinking. Look for opportunities to share the love of God. After all… what have you got to lose? And there is so much to be gained.
Until next time, my darlings! Take care, and remember that old song we learned in Sunday School…
This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine! This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine! This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine! Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine!
XOXOXOXOXOXOXO
So last week we talked about being on fire for God. Remember our two examples of the lukewarm Christian and the passionate Christian? One of the things on the ‘on fire’ list was showing Christ to others. I thought we might expound upon that a little bit. So this week, let’s learn together about sharing Christ.
Some of you may be getting freaked out already. “Share Christ? But… that might require talking about Him… to my non-Christian friends!!!!” Ummm, yeah. Yeah, you may just have to do that. “You mean like… in school?” Yes. “Oh, come now! Are we certain that’s absolutely necessary? I mean, I’m not like a missionary or anything. SURELY God doesn’t need me to do that sort of thing.”
Oh, but He does. Well, He doesn’t need you… but guess what? He chose you. Don’t ask me why, but we are His plan for spreading His word about the Savior. Personally, I would have picked a more reliable medium, but He chose us as the couriers of His message. Don’t believe me? Fine, listen to what God says about it.
Luke 8:16- “No one lights a lamp and puts it under a bowl or under a bed. A lamp is always put on a lampstand, so that people who come into a house will see the light” Meaning, if Jesus has brought light to the darkness in your life, why on earth are you hiding it? Put it out where it can be seen, so others can benefit from the light you have!
Luke 9:1- “One day Jesus called together his twelve disciples… Then he sent them out to tell everyone about the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick.” He sent them out to tell EVERYONE!! Friends, strangers, cool people, the not-so-cool people, the smart, the stupid, the nice and the mean. Oh, and don’t think you are off the hook just because you aren’t one of the twelve. The definition of disciple is “a person who is a pupil or an adherent of the doctrines of another; follower”. So if that is what you are to Christ, then happy trails to you, my friend!
Acts 5:42- “Every day in the Temple and in people's homes they continued teaching the people and telling the Good News—that Jesus is the Christ.” Did you catch that? Every day! They were so thrilled with what God had done in their lives that they simply couldn’t stop talking about it to everybody! That’s how we are called to be! It’s not a chore, my darlings, but a privilege! Are you that excited about what God has done for you? Or are you more excited about the new ipod your mom gave you for Christmas? Before you answer, take a mental note of which you talked about more in this past week.
It also says in Matthew 28:19-20 “So you must go and make disciples of all nations. Baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Teach them to obey everything I have commanded you. And you can be sure that I am always with you, to the very end.” I want to dig into this verse a little bit deeper. It’s pretty straightforward though, isn’t it? You must go. Three little words, so often used in everyday conversation. Let’s take a look at them.
YOU must go: Hey you! Yeah, you with the face! I’m talking to you! This applies to all of us. That means you, too. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that you have to be something absolutely extraordinary to share the love of God. I mean, you think the disciples were such hot stuff? Peter had a temper the size of Peru, and he abandoned Jesus when He was arrested. Paul started his career by killing Christians, and even after his conversion he had a “thorn in his side” (although he doesn’t tell us what). James and John (not the Baptist) sent their mommy to ask Jesus if they could sit at the right and left hand of the Father. Even John the Baptist doubted if Jesus was the Messiah and sent some disciples to ask Him about it. Matthew was a tax collector and cheated people out of their money, and the majority of the disciples were relatively uneducated fishermen. So don’t worry if you haven’t been to Bible college. If you have the love of Jesus in your heart and the word of God in your hand, God’s going to use you!
You MUST go: “Umm, yeah, I’m not a really good public speaker or anything, and I’m sort of shy, so is it ok if I pass on this one?” Oh, of course! No problem, we wouldn’t want to make you uncomfortable or anything, you just sit back and let everyone else take care of it… JUST KIDDING! This was not a suggestion people! It’s not, “Oh, if you feel like it and if you get around to it and if it’s convenient for you, could you maybe go and make disciples for me?” NO! This is a commandment! It’s not like God is standing over us with a lightening bolt forcing us to go out into parts unknown to share His love or anything like that… but it says in Romans 10:14 “But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them?” Get it? If we don’t go and tell people, how can they ever know? If you had the cure for AIDS in your possession, would you keep it to yourself? No! You would tell people! You would do your utmost to get the news out! Here we have the cure for a thing worse than physical death, that is, ultimate separation from God our Father and an eternity in Hell, and WE DON’T TELL ANYBODY! Why? You think about it, and I’ll get to it in a moment.
You must GO: What does it take to ‘go’? Well, it usually involves moving. And moving starts with a single step. So, where do you need to start stepping to? I’m not saying we all need to hop a plane for China and start rescuing orphans. Maybe some of us do, I don’t know. But maybe you do need to take a step across the lunchroom to that kid who sits by himself every day. Maybe a step out of your way to greet that person you don’t generally like to acquaint yourself with. Maybe taking a step out of your routine is called for, so you can stop and talk to a friend that is hurting. Maybe God is calling you to step out of your comfort zone. I know it’s not always easy to live a godly life. I know it’s not always comfortable to talk about God. But do you think that maybe He might be worth giving it a shot? So, where are you going to go? And who are you going to?
So why don’t we all go more often, and more easily? Why is that we limit our references to Jesus to a little blip on a myspace page, if He even gets that much exposure? How is it that we can go through our days and allow it to remain unknown that He is the Lord of our lives? I of course can’t name all our reservations, but it seems that the main one is fear. Fear of rejection, fear of messing up, fear of being different, fear of seeming ‘intolerant’… ooh, intolerance is a biggie. Let’s be honest, these are real fears for some of us. Of course, the probability of these perceptions being put on us can be lessened by a little bit of common sense.
I was reading something the other day, and it had a list of life lessons. One of the items on the list was “The majority of people who want to share their religious ideas with you rarely want to hear yours.” It struck me that this statement is often all too true. Now I am not saying that we ought to adopt the idea that everything is true, and you can believe whatever you want to and always be correct… that is simply illogical. If you are discussing with someone and the two of you have contradicting or opposed ideas, either one of you is right and the other is wrong. Or, it could be that you are both wrong and someone else is right. Speak with confidence of what you know, but allow for the possibility that you may be in the wrong. If you want to talk about the hope that you have, why don’t you listen to what other people have to say? TALK to people about God, don’t beat them over the head with Him! Listening connects you to people, helps them to see that you are not a self-righteous freak, and is simply polite! Note: this also helps to dispel the idea that you are being intolerant and can lessen any feelings of rejection.
Still, no matter how nice or polite you are, some people will simply not like what you have to say. Yes, people might get mad at you. Yes, people might reject you. Yes, people might make fun of you or persecute you in some other way. But you know what? That’s ok! There is another part of that verse we didn’t look at yet… it’s the ending. Remember? It says, “And you can be sure that I am always with you, to the very end.” Catch that? God isn’t sending you out on your own here! He is always there with you!
Remember those people we mentioned that were talking about God every single day? Did I happen to mention that they had just been flogged for talking about Jesus? They knew full well that they could be taken custody of again at any time and put through terrible pain, but they kept on preaching because they knew that God was with them!
Throughout the centuries Christians have faced horrible persecution, been tortured and killed and taken from their families and imprisoned, just for talking about Jesus. But they never stopped telling! Why? Because they knew that GOD WAS WITH THEM! Even today this holds true in many places around the world, where Christians have to be very careful how they preach the gospel because of the danger, but you know what? They are still talking about it, because THEY KNOW GOD IS WITH THEM!!! Are you getting the picture? The majority of you, my readers, very likely live here in the United States with me (although not all of you). Thus, you enjoy immense freedom to talk about God to whomever you wish, whenever, wherever! I can type this blog in my basement with Beethoven blasting in my ears without fear for my life and my family! Why do we not take greater advantage of the freedom we have to share the greatest news ever? For fear? For fear of a little mockery? For fear that someone might call us a mean name? For fear of a little embarrassment? Oh, my friends! GOD is greater than our fear, GOD is greater than mockery, GOD is greater than humiliation, GOD is greater than the pain and the suffering and torment and the persecution, and no matter what our circumstances are we can press on in exclaiming about the hope and the life He has given us because GOD IS ALWAYS WITH US!
I know this was a long one guys, so I will end it here. But when you go to school or to work or wherever it is that you go tomorrow, I want you to be thinking. Look for opportunities to share the love of God. After all… what have you got to lose? And there is so much to be gained.
Until next time, my darlings! Take care, and remember that old song we learned in Sunday School…
This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine! This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine! This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine! Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine!
XOXOXOXOXOXOXO
Thursday, January 1, 2009
By the way....
Happy new year, darlings!! May God bless you in every possible way!
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