THIS WEEK, I realized I had a bad habit that I had to change. I had fallen into a cycle that was depriving me of sleep. Every day I read a Bible passage and journal about it, and during the school year I got pretty good about doing it early in the day. When I do that, my whole day goes better. I have the word in my heart all day long, and I get to put God first and spend some time just enjoying Him before I go to classes and do schoolwork.
But this summer I've been doing it before I go to bed. Not bad. But when it's late, I'm sleepy. It takes me longer to focus on the word, and from time to time I even fall asleep face down next to my open Bible. When I do it this way, I still get to draw near to God, but it's not as full. It becomes something I kind of have to do before I get to go to sleep. And then to make up for staying up later, I get up later too, and then it's too late to do it earlier the next day. It's a frustrating, sleepless cycle.
A couple days ago I did that, and I was exhausted all day long the next day. I didn't feel like doing anything really useful. That night, I told my mom about it, and she challenged me to get up just a little earlier and do it the next morning. So that's what I decided I would do. But first I had to do my reading for tonight.
I'm in the middle of a Bible in a Year program that tells me what to read every day, so I can read the whole thing. Following this program, this is the first thing I read.
Psalm 127: 1-2 "Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it; unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows; for so He gives His beloved sleep."
Now I know this isn't literally written as advice for how to get good sleep, but I thought it was really beautiful that God put this in my way right when I'd just gotten done telling Him how weary I was making myself. I understood that our physical and spiritual rest are important to God. He wants us to seek Him in His word, and sometimes we do need to do uncomfortable things, like fasting, to draw near to Him. But He doesn't want us to hurt ourselves.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 "Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body."
Whatever we do or don't do, we belong to God and we have to take care of our bodies. I needed to make a change. The whole point of those verses from Psalm 127 is that God doesn't want us to become weary relying on ourselves, because following Him means learning to lean on Him completely. When I save seeking Him in His word for last, it hinders me both physically and spiritually because I lose sleep and I haven't had the word as much on my mind through everything that happens in the day.
Now I'm doing my best to seek Him as early as I can, and this helps me to make sure I keep my heart and mind chasing after Him all day long. I've been taking time to sit and pray every day that my family and I will get our "daily bread," that God will provide for what we need physically and make us grateful, but even more that we will be hungry for His word.
Matthew 4:3-4 "And the tempter came and said to Him, 'If You are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.' But He answered, 'It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.' ' "
I'm really glad God talked to me about this, because it's so much easier to enjoy His presence when I'm not struggling to keep my eyes open.
I want my time in the word to be like I want my life to be, which is less like a late night study session and more like this: Psalm 63:1 "O God, You are my God; earnestly I seek You; my soul thirsts for You; my flesh faints for You, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water." A little weariness is good in longing for God, to bring us closer to Him. But He doesn't want us to wear ourselves down. Our health and our joy is important to Him. It's why He instituted the Sabbath for the Jews - if God saw a need to take a rest after creating everything, they could take a day off to just dwell on Him and enjoy His holiness. God doesn't see rest as an optional thing, either for our bodies or for our souls.
God is sovereign, and there is no end to the wonderful depth of His glory. He wants us to want to get to know Him. He asks us to take some time to be still and just see who He is. Now that this isn't going to be so much of a chore for me, I can enjoy getting to know God and what His dreams are, and all day long I can be working with Him in what He is doing to make those big dreams come true.
Psalm 46:10 "Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!"
Sunday, July 29, 2012
Sunday, July 22, 2012
Killer
THIS WEEK we were reminded how evil people can be. You probably heard about the shooting at the Batman movie premier three days ago. 71 people shot, 12 people killed. Those killed were between 6 years old and 60. I don't get it. Totally random but strategically planned. And the shooter didn't even run. He just went out to his car and got arrested. He's obviously insane but very brilliant. It seems like he just killed people to kill people.
It really makes me worried about the world, and it reminds me just how much we need grace. We can't go living in fear that we'll be shot in movie theaters. Jesus is the antidote to all evil, and God is love. Our world is dying to have Him, and He is not far away.
1 Timothy 1:7 "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind."
Watching the news last night, I heard about the people who had died and everything they left behind. The young and the old, and the three young men who all died protecting their girlfriends. Then I saw the face of the man who killed them, and the smug grin in his mugshot, and I realized that I hated him. It's weird, I don't think I remember the last time I hated somebody. But I looked at him and thought that that's a man who really doesn't deserve to keep sucking air. He shouldn't keep living. There's no excuse. Nothing that could make what he did okay.
There's no doubt the shooter is guilty and deserves to die. God is definitely furious about it, because He hates murder. It's a personal insult to His workmanship, to the humanity that bears His image, and to the breath of life He puts into every person.
I read this verse last night. Psalm 97:10 "You who love the Lord, hate evil! He preserves the souls of His saints; He delivers them out of the hand of the wicked." Everything in God is opposed to what this man has done. But His grace means that our guilt doesn't have to rest on us if we'll let Him take it on Himself.
This has taught me something about God's grace. Lately I'm really learning how deeply dependent we are on Christ, and how limitless the possibilities are for change through Him. I remembered Barabbas, who was everything Jesus was not.
Mark 15:7 "And there was one named Barabbas, who was chained with his fellow rebels; they had committed murder in the rebellion."
The crowd had him released instead of Jesus. They decided the sinless Son of God was more deserving to die than a murderer and a robber. The fact that he went free while Jesus dies is a picture of what grace is to us. He dies for those who deserve to die, and He rises to give us new life. If God is completely holy, then sin is sin, whether it's a lie or a murder, we don't deserve Him. He's life - it's just who He is. And we don't deserve to live, to be with Him - it's who we are.
I remembered Paul, who thought he was righteous because he devoted his life to killing Christians, until Jesus convicted him and changed his heart. Grace was able to reach him so completely that he became the greatest missionary in history, wrote half the New Testament, and died for Christ like a hero.
I think about the Bible, which is full of rejects whom God chose and redeemed with His undeserved grace, and I realize that all humanity belongs on our knees. We're the killers, but He's the One who died like one.
God can save evil people who deserve to die. It's just that our definition of that isn't quite the same as His. I hope that killer gets the death penalty, but I hope we don't all get it. How glorious is God, that His grace can completely redeem people who are as vicious and guilty as that killer? And how desperately do we need His grace, if our souls are found in the same position as his? Nothing can overrule what He's done.
Psalm 40:17 "But I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinks upon me. You are my help and my deliverer; do not delay, O my God."
God is very good. Knowing that His grace covers me is the greatest blessing in my life. And walking with Him constantly reveals to me the depth of my need and the height of His love.
It really makes me worried about the world, and it reminds me just how much we need grace. We can't go living in fear that we'll be shot in movie theaters. Jesus is the antidote to all evil, and God is love. Our world is dying to have Him, and He is not far away.
1 Timothy 1:7 "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind."
Watching the news last night, I heard about the people who had died and everything they left behind. The young and the old, and the three young men who all died protecting their girlfriends. Then I saw the face of the man who killed them, and the smug grin in his mugshot, and I realized that I hated him. It's weird, I don't think I remember the last time I hated somebody. But I looked at him and thought that that's a man who really doesn't deserve to keep sucking air. He shouldn't keep living. There's no excuse. Nothing that could make what he did okay.
There's no doubt the shooter is guilty and deserves to die. God is definitely furious about it, because He hates murder. It's a personal insult to His workmanship, to the humanity that bears His image, and to the breath of life He puts into every person.
I read this verse last night. Psalm 97:10 "You who love the Lord, hate evil! He preserves the souls of His saints; He delivers them out of the hand of the wicked." Everything in God is opposed to what this man has done. But His grace means that our guilt doesn't have to rest on us if we'll let Him take it on Himself.
This has taught me something about God's grace. Lately I'm really learning how deeply dependent we are on Christ, and how limitless the possibilities are for change through Him. I remembered Barabbas, who was everything Jesus was not.
Mark 15:7 "And there was one named Barabbas, who was chained with his fellow rebels; they had committed murder in the rebellion."
The crowd had him released instead of Jesus. They decided the sinless Son of God was more deserving to die than a murderer and a robber. The fact that he went free while Jesus dies is a picture of what grace is to us. He dies for those who deserve to die, and He rises to give us new life. If God is completely holy, then sin is sin, whether it's a lie or a murder, we don't deserve Him. He's life - it's just who He is. And we don't deserve to live, to be with Him - it's who we are.
I remembered Paul, who thought he was righteous because he devoted his life to killing Christians, until Jesus convicted him and changed his heart. Grace was able to reach him so completely that he became the greatest missionary in history, wrote half the New Testament, and died for Christ like a hero.
I think about the Bible, which is full of rejects whom God chose and redeemed with His undeserved grace, and I realize that all humanity belongs on our knees. We're the killers, but He's the One who died like one.
God can save evil people who deserve to die. It's just that our definition of that isn't quite the same as His. I hope that killer gets the death penalty, but I hope we don't all get it. How glorious is God, that His grace can completely redeem people who are as vicious and guilty as that killer? And how desperately do we need His grace, if our souls are found in the same position as his? Nothing can overrule what He's done.
Psalm 40:17 "But I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinks upon me. You are my help and my deliverer; do not delay, O my God."
God is very good. Knowing that His grace covers me is the greatest blessing in my life. And walking with Him constantly reveals to me the depth of my need and the height of His love.
Monday, July 16, 2012
Weeding
THIS WEEK I worked in the garden with my mom, pulling weeds. Weeds are awful because they are not only bad for the plants that you want, but they're also very hard to get rid of completely. They're tricky, because once you get rid of the big ones you see there are all these smaller ones that popped up while you were blinking, and when they are gone there are all these little seedlings, and you just know there is no earthly way you will keep these weeds from growing back.
Once you've taken care of them, your garden looks beautiful and healthy. It looks like the person it belongs to has really spent time caring for it. But if we take its beauty for granted, the weeds whose roots are inevitably just below the surface will just spring up again.
I realized that sin is the same way. Just when we think we've taken care of our bad habits and nagging guilts, something pops up that shows us that we just aren't as righteous as we'd love to think we are. We find out we are proud, or that we are weak to some temptation, or that there's something we do that isn't done for the glory of God. This reminds us of our need for God to continually clean us up.
I think the most assuring think there is to know is that God does not change. His love does not change. If He was here yesterday, and He was trying to grow us up into everything He envisions for us in Christ, that guess what He is doing today? He's still here, still working on us, still loving us. I don't understand how He does that, how He just keeps loving. This week I'm starting to better understand that nothing we can do can make God love us any less or any more.
In Luke 17:3-4 Jesus gives us a challenge and a promise. "Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, 'I repent,' you must forgive him."
He says that if we forgive, He will forgive us. So in challenging us to forgive the sins of others no matter how many times they say sorry, He is telling us that this is how He acts toward us. How does a person get her mind around that, that the same God who made us loves us enough to forgive us every time we come and repent? That's such an encouraging challenge to grow, and to strive to be more like Him.
This week I read about David's big mistake with Bathsheba. He was a shining example in practically every area of his life. God called him a man after His own heart. But he slept with his friend's wife, got her pregnant, got his friend killed in battle and tried to cover it all up. Needless to say, God was angry with him, and through the prophet Nathan He told him the punishment that was coming.
2 Samuel 12:13 "David said to Nathan, 'I have sinned against the Lord.' And Nathan said to David, 'The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die.'"
David really messed up. What he did was really evil, and God wasn't about to overlook it. But because God is love, and because He doesn't change, David's stupid mistake couldn't change His love. He repented, and before the verse was over, he was forgiven. God took away his son, but He soon provided another whom He nicknamed Jedidiah, which means "beloved of the Lord." I'm amazed at how completely God forgives.
But even when we are doing fine, in an easy season of life, when we aren't struggling too badly, what can we say God thinks of us? I'd say it's in those parts of life that it's easy to start thinking we are good, and demoting other people. There's a weed. But the only sense in which we are good is that when God made us He called us "good," exactly how He planned, made for His glory. It doesn't mean we're perfect.
Luke 12:9-10 "Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, 'We are unworthy servants; we have done only what was our duty.'"
God's love is better than a love that remains when we do wrong and increases when we do well. God's love is one that sees us for what we are and covers us with His own righteousness. He's a gardener who will help us weed our gardens when we acknowledge the weeds are there and we need His help. But He's also one who remembers that the roots of the weeds are still in there, and He will keep tending it. The way for us to be beautiful is to always remember how much we need Him.
Once you've taken care of them, your garden looks beautiful and healthy. It looks like the person it belongs to has really spent time caring for it. But if we take its beauty for granted, the weeds whose roots are inevitably just below the surface will just spring up again.
I realized that sin is the same way. Just when we think we've taken care of our bad habits and nagging guilts, something pops up that shows us that we just aren't as righteous as we'd love to think we are. We find out we are proud, or that we are weak to some temptation, or that there's something we do that isn't done for the glory of God. This reminds us of our need for God to continually clean us up.
I think the most assuring think there is to know is that God does not change. His love does not change. If He was here yesterday, and He was trying to grow us up into everything He envisions for us in Christ, that guess what He is doing today? He's still here, still working on us, still loving us. I don't understand how He does that, how He just keeps loving. This week I'm starting to better understand that nothing we can do can make God love us any less or any more.
In Luke 17:3-4 Jesus gives us a challenge and a promise. "Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, 'I repent,' you must forgive him."
He says that if we forgive, He will forgive us. So in challenging us to forgive the sins of others no matter how many times they say sorry, He is telling us that this is how He acts toward us. How does a person get her mind around that, that the same God who made us loves us enough to forgive us every time we come and repent? That's such an encouraging challenge to grow, and to strive to be more like Him.
This week I read about David's big mistake with Bathsheba. He was a shining example in practically every area of his life. God called him a man after His own heart. But he slept with his friend's wife, got her pregnant, got his friend killed in battle and tried to cover it all up. Needless to say, God was angry with him, and through the prophet Nathan He told him the punishment that was coming.
2 Samuel 12:13 "David said to Nathan, 'I have sinned against the Lord.' And Nathan said to David, 'The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die.'"
David really messed up. What he did was really evil, and God wasn't about to overlook it. But because God is love, and because He doesn't change, David's stupid mistake couldn't change His love. He repented, and before the verse was over, he was forgiven. God took away his son, but He soon provided another whom He nicknamed Jedidiah, which means "beloved of the Lord." I'm amazed at how completely God forgives.
But even when we are doing fine, in an easy season of life, when we aren't struggling too badly, what can we say God thinks of us? I'd say it's in those parts of life that it's easy to start thinking we are good, and demoting other people. There's a weed. But the only sense in which we are good is that when God made us He called us "good," exactly how He planned, made for His glory. It doesn't mean we're perfect.
Luke 12:9-10 "Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, 'We are unworthy servants; we have done only what was our duty.'"
God's love is better than a love that remains when we do wrong and increases when we do well. God's love is one that sees us for what we are and covers us with His own righteousness. He's a gardener who will help us weed our gardens when we acknowledge the weeds are there and we need His help. But He's also one who remembers that the roots of the weeds are still in there, and He will keep tending it. The way for us to be beautiful is to always remember how much we need Him.
Monday, July 9, 2012
Out to Sea
THIS WEEK my great-grandmother turned ninety-two. She came to town for her birthday, and we celebrated on the fourth of July with fireworks and watermelon. It was a blessing and an inspiration to talk to her, and to be in one room with family stretching from one year old to ninety-two. God has really blessed my family.
Granny hadn't seen most of us in a while, and she seemed to really enjoy how big all the children are getting. My brother is so much taller and thinner and musclier than he was last time she saw him. Molly is walking and talking and swimming. And she couldn't believe it when I told her I am about to turn nineteen.
It was so good to just sit and talk to her about life and school and people. I will never forget what she told me: "Nothing happens without God." He has really blessed my family. And there's something so powerful about hearing those words from somebody with so many years. I hear many people my age confidently claiming God has nothing to do with anything, or that He isn't good, or that He isn't even real. But Granny is ninety-two. She's seen good things and terrible things, life and death, sickness and health. She knows what this world is like, and she concludes that nothing happens without God. I'm eighteen, and I know that. But when somebody so old knows it, the young should sit up and listen, and look around to see what He is doing now.
God is very, very good. He has made us for a very specific kind of supernatural joy. We are made for His glory and to worship Him. Everybody worships, but when we come to the point where we are worshiping the only One who deserves our worship, our souls fall into place and we find joy. When He is our only God, and when worship is the way we live, and when praise is the same as breathing, we have the greatest joy because it's what we are made for.
King David was able to see that nothing happens without God, and he got his joy from worshiping Him. He made a fool of himself jumping around and singing to God when the ark of the covenant entered Jerusalem. He understood that God was the strength of Israel. The ark, the dwelling place of His presence on earth for Israel, was coming. I can't imagine how excited he must have been. He worshiped so hard that one of his wives scolded him.
2 Samuel 6:16 "Now as the ark of the Lord came into the City of David, Michal, Saul's daughter, looked through a window and saw King David leaping and whirling before the Lord; and she despised him in her heart."
She thought a king should be more dignified than that, especially while the young women of his house were watching. Well, David wasn't his own king.
v. 22 "And I will be even more undignified than this, and will be humble in my own sight. But as for the maidservants of whom you have spoken, by them I will be held in honor."
Worship is perfected by people who believe that nothing happens without God, and that anything is possible with Him. People who seek to humble themselves before Him in order to draw near to Him. Sometimes worship is undignified and silly, but it's not about us.
Yesterday I was walking on the beach with my family, and God added to a lesson he taught me a few months ago. At a retreat, He told me that His love is like an ocean that goes on forever, so we have no lack of love. Now as I got my feet wet and looked for shells, He told me that seeking Him is like swimming out to sea. I often find myself focused on smaller things, looking for shells, good things that come from God but they aren't God. He wasn't speaking literally, but He told me to swim out far and recklessly, into His love. Not to be afraid to experience the vastness of His love, because He will keep me afloat. To be submerged in Him instead of fixating on swirly shells like the ones I collected and put in my purse.
It's when life is lived for God's glory and by trusting Him that we find out what's possible with Him. Suddenly wonderful things are within reach. We find our faith to be well-placed. It's when worship is our life, a silly and exuberant dance of praise, a swim out to the heart of the sea, that we can clearly see that nothing happens without Him.
Granny hadn't seen most of us in a while, and she seemed to really enjoy how big all the children are getting. My brother is so much taller and thinner and musclier than he was last time she saw him. Molly is walking and talking and swimming. And she couldn't believe it when I told her I am about to turn nineteen.
It was so good to just sit and talk to her about life and school and people. I will never forget what she told me: "Nothing happens without God." He has really blessed my family. And there's something so powerful about hearing those words from somebody with so many years. I hear many people my age confidently claiming God has nothing to do with anything, or that He isn't good, or that He isn't even real. But Granny is ninety-two. She's seen good things and terrible things, life and death, sickness and health. She knows what this world is like, and she concludes that nothing happens without God. I'm eighteen, and I know that. But when somebody so old knows it, the young should sit up and listen, and look around to see what He is doing now.
God is very, very good. He has made us for a very specific kind of supernatural joy. We are made for His glory and to worship Him. Everybody worships, but when we come to the point where we are worshiping the only One who deserves our worship, our souls fall into place and we find joy. When He is our only God, and when worship is the way we live, and when praise is the same as breathing, we have the greatest joy because it's what we are made for.
King David was able to see that nothing happens without God, and he got his joy from worshiping Him. He made a fool of himself jumping around and singing to God when the ark of the covenant entered Jerusalem. He understood that God was the strength of Israel. The ark, the dwelling place of His presence on earth for Israel, was coming. I can't imagine how excited he must have been. He worshiped so hard that one of his wives scolded him.
2 Samuel 6:16 "Now as the ark of the Lord came into the City of David, Michal, Saul's daughter, looked through a window and saw King David leaping and whirling before the Lord; and she despised him in her heart."
She thought a king should be more dignified than that, especially while the young women of his house were watching. Well, David wasn't his own king.
v. 22 "And I will be even more undignified than this, and will be humble in my own sight. But as for the maidservants of whom you have spoken, by them I will be held in honor."
Worship is perfected by people who believe that nothing happens without God, and that anything is possible with Him. People who seek to humble themselves before Him in order to draw near to Him. Sometimes worship is undignified and silly, but it's not about us.
Yesterday I was walking on the beach with my family, and God added to a lesson he taught me a few months ago. At a retreat, He told me that His love is like an ocean that goes on forever, so we have no lack of love. Now as I got my feet wet and looked for shells, He told me that seeking Him is like swimming out to sea. I often find myself focused on smaller things, looking for shells, good things that come from God but they aren't God. He wasn't speaking literally, but He told me to swim out far and recklessly, into His love. Not to be afraid to experience the vastness of His love, because He will keep me afloat. To be submerged in Him instead of fixating on swirly shells like the ones I collected and put in my purse.
It's when life is lived for God's glory and by trusting Him that we find out what's possible with Him. Suddenly wonderful things are within reach. We find our faith to be well-placed. It's when worship is our life, a silly and exuberant dance of praise, a swim out to the heart of the sea, that we can clearly see that nothing happens without Him.
Monday, July 2, 2012
"Jesus Misses Us!"
THIS WEEK I went to Miami with my team to do a Vacational Bible School with Bridge Church, which has very recently been planted there. The pastor, Fikri Youssef, told us his opinion that mission trips are one of the fastest tracks you can take to growth. I absolutely relate to that, because I have come back home very different. Where before this week I was just trying to make sure each day that I didn't waste my summer. Now I am so overwhelmed by the goodness of God that I hardly know what to do with myself.
God gave my team such powerful unity. We ranged in age from 9 to 50, and we all quickly became best friends. We had a running list of all the funny things people said, and we encouraged and prayed for each other all the time. I can see ways God put us together as a team so we'd have everybody we needed - for songs, for hugs, for wisdom, for laughter, for tricking Miss Kim into thinking we'd all run away from Miss Karen at MacDonald's.
For two days after VBS we would go pass out fliers to get more kids to come. One afternoon we were doing this in the park, and the Pastor's daughter, Amira, fell off a play set and hit her head. Her nose was bleeding and her eyes told us she wasn't doing well. Fearing she might have a concussion, we prayed for her together, and right then her nosebleed stopped, her eyes lit up, and she stood up happy and ready for dinner. The next day she told me she only had a little bump. God answered us.
John 14:13 "Whatever you ask in My name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son."
The first night, a ten-year old girl on my team, Natalie, stood up from our table at a restaurant while we waited for our food. She wouldn't let the wait time be wasted. She took a stack of VBS fliers and started passing them out to the tables around us, in the hopes that even one more kid would come and hear about the love of God, that one more family would get connected with this new church and get to know Him.
All week I was asking God to make me brave like that, because rushing around to share good news with strangers has always made me nervous. But then, so had singing, and now God had taken that fear away so completely that I could help lead worship on this team. I didn't want this to be scary to me anymore. So God answered me. I'm getting a lot better at this. The second day, I felt more prepared to go up to strangers like that in the park and at the mall, so much that I almost gave away my room key giving a Bridge Church card to one couple.
I ran around that mall feeling so happy, because I knew this was what I was supposed to do, an effective way to glorify God, and it was getting less scary for me. Barriers of all kinds came down for every member of my team.
Kids did come. We had about 40, and my team, the Yellow Team, was made up of nine kids. The first day was fun, but I felt overwhelmed. I asked God to help me really love those kids like He helped me love my first team. You should see my pictures of them on my phone. Jasmine with a cotton ball on her nose, Teja and Dre hugging each other and smiling, Allison and Izabella dancing together. I love them so much, I can't stop showing people my pictures. He gave us His love for them.
We danced with them and sang about God's love and trustworthiness, and we had a room where we talked about Bible stories like the resurrection of Lazarus and the Crucifixion. Miss Kim asked the kids in this room if there was anything they were wanting to say or to pray about, and a little guy on my team, Adam, had something to say. "Jesus misses us!" he declared. He kept saying it the next day. I believe God was talking to his six-year old heart.
Romans 5:10 "For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by His life."
Nevertheless I wasn't sure my kids were really getting the gospel. They didn't seem too interested in letting Jesus be their "best friend and their boss" like we were explaining. I thought they might be more into the crackers we gave them and the games we played, and I didn't want it to end there. So I was praying I'd see something by the end, and that they would be saved.
We were all encouraged at the end of the second-to-last day when Pastor Fikri gave a message urging us to preach the gospel because it's everybody's job. He prophesied over each of us, and that was the first time that had happened to me. Paul said it was the best gift of the Spirit, and I see why - it's hard to beat the encouragement somebody can give by sharing the words God gave him about you. So God thinks I'm strong, and sweet, and He doesn't want me to be held back or afraid I can't preach the word because I'll come off as rude. I'm jumping out of my shoes excited about all the boldness and love God's pouring into my soul.
The next day while we were coloring, Adam said to me, "I miss Jesus!" Adam, who was so often impatient to watch a cartoon or have a snack, who never seemed fully engaged in what we were doing, seemed to understand the separation between us and Jesus, the gap that we needed Him to fill. It showed me that Jesus isn't using us because He needs us, but because He just wants to include us. He can get to our hearts all by Himself.
Isaiah 59:1-2 "Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or His ear dull, that it cannot hear; but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He does not hear.
Romans 8:38 "For I am sure that neither death nor life, mor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all Creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God which is Christ Jesus our Lord."
I talked to Adam about letting Jesus be his best friend and his boss, and letting Him live in his little heart and never go away. I love how simple God has made the gospel. What was separated can now be put back together. He wanted that, and so I helped him pray, and then I helped him spell his prayer on the paper: "Jesus I want you to be my boss. From: Adam." He was so excited he even wanted to take it home. But it was a big paper for the whole group, so I wrote it on his tag for him. Then I ran around the edges of the paper to have this same conversation with a few other kids. Five out of my nine kids were saved in that coloring room. That's the first time I've prayed with people in this way, and suddenly, like passing out fliers and singing in front of crowds, it's not scary. It's joyful.
And if it only takes God a week to do all this, I can't wait to see what He'll do in our changed lives here at home for this summer, and then during this school year, if it only takes Him a week to do all this.
God gave my team such powerful unity. We ranged in age from 9 to 50, and we all quickly became best friends. We had a running list of all the funny things people said, and we encouraged and prayed for each other all the time. I can see ways God put us together as a team so we'd have everybody we needed - for songs, for hugs, for wisdom, for laughter, for tricking Miss Kim into thinking we'd all run away from Miss Karen at MacDonald's.
For two days after VBS we would go pass out fliers to get more kids to come. One afternoon we were doing this in the park, and the Pastor's daughter, Amira, fell off a play set and hit her head. Her nose was bleeding and her eyes told us she wasn't doing well. Fearing she might have a concussion, we prayed for her together, and right then her nosebleed stopped, her eyes lit up, and she stood up happy and ready for dinner. The next day she told me she only had a little bump. God answered us.
John 14:13 "Whatever you ask in My name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son."
The first night, a ten-year old girl on my team, Natalie, stood up from our table at a restaurant while we waited for our food. She wouldn't let the wait time be wasted. She took a stack of VBS fliers and started passing them out to the tables around us, in the hopes that even one more kid would come and hear about the love of God, that one more family would get connected with this new church and get to know Him.
All week I was asking God to make me brave like that, because rushing around to share good news with strangers has always made me nervous. But then, so had singing, and now God had taken that fear away so completely that I could help lead worship on this team. I didn't want this to be scary to me anymore. So God answered me. I'm getting a lot better at this. The second day, I felt more prepared to go up to strangers like that in the park and at the mall, so much that I almost gave away my room key giving a Bridge Church card to one couple.
I ran around that mall feeling so happy, because I knew this was what I was supposed to do, an effective way to glorify God, and it was getting less scary for me. Barriers of all kinds came down for every member of my team.
Kids did come. We had about 40, and my team, the Yellow Team, was made up of nine kids. The first day was fun, but I felt overwhelmed. I asked God to help me really love those kids like He helped me love my first team. You should see my pictures of them on my phone. Jasmine with a cotton ball on her nose, Teja and Dre hugging each other and smiling, Allison and Izabella dancing together. I love them so much, I can't stop showing people my pictures. He gave us His love for them.
We danced with them and sang about God's love and trustworthiness, and we had a room where we talked about Bible stories like the resurrection of Lazarus and the Crucifixion. Miss Kim asked the kids in this room if there was anything they were wanting to say or to pray about, and a little guy on my team, Adam, had something to say. "Jesus misses us!" he declared. He kept saying it the next day. I believe God was talking to his six-year old heart.
Romans 5:10 "For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by His life."
Nevertheless I wasn't sure my kids were really getting the gospel. They didn't seem too interested in letting Jesus be their "best friend and their boss" like we were explaining. I thought they might be more into the crackers we gave them and the games we played, and I didn't want it to end there. So I was praying I'd see something by the end, and that they would be saved.
We were all encouraged at the end of the second-to-last day when Pastor Fikri gave a message urging us to preach the gospel because it's everybody's job. He prophesied over each of us, and that was the first time that had happened to me. Paul said it was the best gift of the Spirit, and I see why - it's hard to beat the encouragement somebody can give by sharing the words God gave him about you. So God thinks I'm strong, and sweet, and He doesn't want me to be held back or afraid I can't preach the word because I'll come off as rude. I'm jumping out of my shoes excited about all the boldness and love God's pouring into my soul.
The next day while we were coloring, Adam said to me, "I miss Jesus!" Adam, who was so often impatient to watch a cartoon or have a snack, who never seemed fully engaged in what we were doing, seemed to understand the separation between us and Jesus, the gap that we needed Him to fill. It showed me that Jesus isn't using us because He needs us, but because He just wants to include us. He can get to our hearts all by Himself.
Isaiah 59:1-2 "Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or His ear dull, that it cannot hear; but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He does not hear.
Romans 8:38 "For I am sure that neither death nor life, mor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all Creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God which is Christ Jesus our Lord."
I talked to Adam about letting Jesus be his best friend and his boss, and letting Him live in his little heart and never go away. I love how simple God has made the gospel. What was separated can now be put back together. He wanted that, and so I helped him pray, and then I helped him spell his prayer on the paper: "Jesus I want you to be my boss. From: Adam." He was so excited he even wanted to take it home. But it was a big paper for the whole group, so I wrote it on his tag for him. Then I ran around the edges of the paper to have this same conversation with a few other kids. Five out of my nine kids were saved in that coloring room. That's the first time I've prayed with people in this way, and suddenly, like passing out fliers and singing in front of crowds, it's not scary. It's joyful.
And if it only takes God a week to do all this, I can't wait to see what He'll do in our changed lives here at home for this summer, and then during this school year, if it only takes Him a week to do all this.
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