Wanted

THIS WEEK I had a very interesting experience. On Wednesday I was blessed to be able to go to an event at Southpoint Community Church called "Engage the Spirit." It's a unique situation, quite different from what most people are used to in a Sunday service, because it is a special environment where one can lay everything aside and praise God with no restraints. We sing loud, we pray big, and a person is free to sit, stand, kneel, walk around, whatever he feels inclined to do.
I had been to Engage the Spirit once before. I asked God to help me to put everything aside and really draw near to Him this Wednesday, and it turned out to be a wonderful experience.
We sang for what felt like maybe twenty-five minutes, but I looked at my phone and discovered I had actually been there for forty minutes. It's very interesting - time really flies in there. When we had sung for that while, we listened to what Pastor Russ had to say. He was not giving a sermon, but he was sharing with us something very important: the fact that God had chosen each one of us as His own, His children. He is neither impressed nor surprised. He doesn't need anyone or anything. How amazing it is that He wants us. He wants me, He wants you, He wants each one of us. It's just astounding. Why on earth would He do that? No reason on earth. The reason is above earth. That's just how God is. He just loves the unloveable. Try to show me another god who can want the useless and support the hopeless. There isn't another one out there.
Engage the Sprit was amazing because it was all about God, and I left there with some new understanding and with a fresh reminder of both His astounding love and His renewing presence. I could not get myself to go to sleep that night until I had written down an image which God showed me while I was listening to what Pastor Russ said. This is what I wrote in my journal:
"At "Engage the Spirit" Night Pastor Russ reminded us about how God chose each one of us as His own. He doesn't need us - He doesn't need anything - and nothing can impress Him. He just wants us. I love belonging to a God who wants me. He redeemed me when I was unpurchaseable. He accepted me when I was unacceptable. He forgave me when I was unforgiveable. These are some of the things Pastor Russ talked about. He said what he was like when God saved him: he was aimless, hopeless, punkish, desperate - and I connected to this because that's what I was when He found me, too. And I'm thinking, if God changed Pastor Russ that much and made him into such a fruitful servant, He can certainly do something with me. And I'm thankful to my God that He loves me, wants me, that He changed me so. I remember what I used to be, and I see what I am now: I am His, and I love it! I love having Him for a Heavenly Father, who picked me! I thanked Him, and He allowed me to find a way to think about His choosing me: He has reached through the whole history of mankind, brushed aside all sins and rejections, shoved off all the tricks of the devil who wants to harm His child, and reached through to me - He grabs me, holds me with a nail-pierced hand. I love God, and I want to love Him more, and more, and more. And more. Forever more, Amen."
I wrote that into my journal by the bluish light of my booklight. I particlularly want to share the part about His reaching through every obstacle to get to me. As I describe this, put your name wherever I have written "I" or "me." God has reached past everything to get to to me, past every sin, past every foolish mistake, past every failure. He has pushed aside the tricks of the devil to show me that He will keep them from harming me. He has continued to reach for me with a nail-pierced hand despite every time I said "I'm more important" or "A little sin is fine." He pushed it all aside and scooped me up the moment I said I'm done saying no, the moment I decided to acknowledge His power over me and decided to follow Him instead of following myself into a trap.
I heard this song on the radio this week: "I Need You to Love me" by Barlow Girl. Here is a website where you can find the lyrics. I suggest you read them. http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/barlowgirl/ineedyoutoloveme.html
Do you realize how much God cares? I'm telling you that you don't. Nobody can wrap his mind around how much our God cares. I've been reading "The Case for a Creator" by Lee Strobel. It's a very wonderful book, by one of my favorite authors. Strobel has recorded his interviews with professors from various fields, measuring the evidence for and against the existence of an Intelligient Designer. I'm not even done reading it, and thus far I've learned that it has been impossible for atheists to propose a theory which satisfactorily explains away the overwhelming amount of evidence for design in the order of the universe and the cause for the beginning of the universe. No matter how you approach it or how far back you go, you cannot successfully remove God from the picture (because God made the picture!). The way physics and chemistry work, human life would not even be possible in the universe if things were even slightly different. Things would change by amounts too large for the mind to understand if we were balanced any differently - if gravity were a little stronger or weaker, or if atoms' stuctures held together differently. You see, it's all been put together in such a way that even many atheists wonder why it all works so well. God is so good.
This week I've felt closer to Him, like more than ever I can tell there is a Heavenly Father-figure listening when I pray, my Lord, my best Friend whose presence puts purpose and meaning into everything.
Don't you think that if God has gone to the trouble of rescuing us from the jaws of death by going there Himself (and coming back!) we should acknowledge that we owe Him our lives? I think so.
Today at church Pastor Russ reminded us about an important lesson we learned a few months ago. In following Jesus, we are called not only to educate ourselves and to gain understanding but also to do things with what we learn. We are supposed to "GO" so that our lives can be "SOWN" for spreading God's Kingdom. Jesus wants us to follow Him and to obey Him. This means that we should imitate His character and His actions of love, humility, healing, kindness, and courage as well as obeying Him when He says "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always even to the end of the age." (Matthew 28:19-20) He definitely knew it would be really difficult. God knows about difficulty. He has seen difficulty on the cross, and in getting His children to come home and love Him. He just wants us to love Him, and to obey Him because we love Him. And sometimes obeying Him gets a little hard. We might be disliked for it, and our faith will be challenged.
He says in Luke 10:3 "Go your way; behold, I send you out as lambs among wolves." There are two kinds of shepherds who will send their sheep over somewhere dangerous: a shepherd who does not care about the sheep, and a shepherd who plans to preserve the sheep and keep him from any harm. Now, we know sheep don't actually go and accomplish missions. But in these verses in which He is telling His servants to GO and share the Gospel and the knowledge of God's love, Jesus is saying that because we love Him and obey Him, and because we trust Him when He promises He will be with us always, we can GO and do things which we might not be immediately comfortable with.
I've been feeling God nearer to me lately. I will trust Him, joy or pain, knowing that He is truthful when He says "I am with you always, even to the end of the age."
Thank you for reading this week. Please post any comments and feel free to share your opinion as well as any miracle or message which God is showing you this week.