Job

I am not sure you knew this but I have been reading through the Bible since July 2010, it has been 16 months and I am only in Job. Sometimes in the past year and a bit I have been so frustrated by the fact that I felt as if I had made no progress on reading through the Bible, it was so frustrating to look forward and see how much I had to read, or look bad and see how little I had read. But now I am have reached Job, this was a book that I was dreading, whenever I read it before it was because I felt like I should just so I could say I had read it like a good Christian. 

But when was the last time any of you have sat down and read job, not just reading it to finish it but to just soak in God's word. Job is powerful, I mean it starts out with God bragging about Job 'Then the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.”' (Job 1:8 NIV) God is bragging about Job like a proud father brags about his children. So God tells Satan that he believes in Job and Satan can test him, he can take everything about the man, but not harm Job himself. Still Job doesn't turn away from God he remains faithful, so then Satan challenges God again “Skin for skin!” Satan replied. “A man will give all he has for his own life. ⁵ But now stretch out your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse you to your face.” (Job 2:4), so God relents again trusting Job to remain faithful, his only condition is that Satan cannot kill Job. Again Satan goes and strikes Job with illness that causes him to be covered in soars all over his body. Still Job does not curse God instead he says "...Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” (Job 2:10)

Job is special, lets be honest most people (and by most I mean most likely everyone) does not have everything taken away from us including our health, family, homes, everything and act like Job. Job grieves yes, but he hasn't sinned yet, blaming God for this, Job has not stopped worshiping.

I love that verse "...Shall we accept good from God and not trouble?" God does not promise us that our lives are going to be filled with happiness, God does not promise that our lives are going to be easy. Actually its the opposite we can look throughout the Bible, both old and new testaments and find that the peoples lives who followed God where in fact not easy at all. We will find that they are constantly being attacked whether verbally or physically because they are different and people don't like different. 

If we are going to be different, if we are going to follow God we should accept the good AND the bad, the hard, the messy, the scary, everything. This life is about so much more then happiness. 

My life began....again...Part 2

If you have ever met me you will know that I am a someone who is shy around people I don't know well, this stems from the fact that I don't trust easily. I don't trust the people who I first meet because I am instantly thinking, what if they don't like me, what if they hurt me, because of these thoughts that are going through my head I stay silent in hopes that I can fade into the background. When God started to break off my fear He did it in tangible ways, He gave me joy that overwhelmed my fear to the point where I was able to  be who I am. Which is opinionated, talks to much, outgoing, adventurous, loves to laugh, and sometimes just a little crazy. I forgot to be silent and instead yearned to get to know my team, I wanted to know their names, their stories, joys, hurts, everything, so I asked questions. I was assertive, I was anything but the wallflower that I should have wanted to be.

The team of shy people dance

We are being set free right here

Its funny because on the second day of training camp they asked the students to ask the Lord what He wanted to tell them about our teams. The training team each team to know what God was calling our teams into, so the students specifically were told to ask him for specific words. It was amazing because so many of them got the word freedom.  God wanted to give us freedom from all the lies, fears, brokenness, hurt, all the things that were holding us back from Him. Freedom was poured out from the Lord on to my team and it started in me and spread, the Lord set every person on my team free. Even more so though my team was going to be used to bring freedom to many they met on the field and even off later when they got home.

I don't know if you can see but you can actually see the changes starting. The smiles get bigger

I will write more about this later but let me tell you this signifies a lot of freedom for my team.

These first to two blogs where about how God set me free and next I will tell you about how he set the rest free. It is story that brings me such great joy that I literally dance and weep because my heart is so full of gratitude and love for the Lord who decided to love us so much. This trip taught me so much about the Love our Abba has for us. Our Abba sent Jesus (His son) to earth to set us free, I lived in a cage for far to long the door has been open and ocassionally I would step back in when I started to wander from my God. No more. Freedom is mine, it was paid for with a price and I want to take my free gift and run with it.

My life began....again...

I struggle with writing about my team because how do I even begin, so maybe I will restart and start at the beginning...

The Banner welcoming my team to training camp

It was another hot humid day in Georgia they day my participants came, the leaders had been already been in Georgia for three days preparing our hearts and minds so that we would be ready to lead our teams. It was a time of refreshing community, we were poured into, encouraged, loved, nothing could have prepared us better for what was coming.

However refreshing and wonderful time together as leaders was it was always tinged with just a little bit of anxiousness because we could not wait for our new families to arrive, we felt ready, it was time.

June 15 was almost as good as Christmas morning with everyone getting up with the knowledge and anticipation that today was the day. The students would all be here tonight, by tonight we could say goodbye to personal space, sleep, carefree days for a month. It was something we were all willing to do with joy in our hearts.

Haleigh and Miranda on the Bus on the way to AIM from the aiport

They arrived just as we knew they would some were scared, some tearful, some with seemingly no fear, they were there standing around and you could just see in their eyes that they were terrified. They wanted to be loved, accepted and just so afraid that they wouldn't find it within their team. The funny thing is that up until that moment I fought the very same fears. I was afraid that my team wouldn't like me, that my co-leaders would be sad that they had to have me on their team. But in that moment of seeing my first participant I didn't care, something in me changed. God spoke to me, He told me that everything would be alright, I would be loved just as much as I already loved my team. That no matter through the hard times Abba loved me.

Ashley and Jesse on the bus from the Airport

In that moment I felt like I was really starting to get a new understanding of that Love.  In that moment that I saw Haleigh (she was the first one I saw), I knew I loved her with my whole heart that she would be there for life. I also knew this love that I had for her wasn't something that I would be capable without Christ giving it to me and if God could just implant this type of Love in me, how much better His love was for me was. How much stronger and all encompassing it was overwhelming and I could feel no fear, it was gone in a moment, Love overcame it.

My team and their 'things' at training camp

To Be Continue...

PS. I am still not fully funded, in the next post I will post the exact number but it is still over $1000 please be praying that I would remain faithful in this time to the fact that God always provides.

David

I have been reading through the Old Testament for the past year and am currently find myself in 2 Kings. The thing that has really struck me in the last couple of months is David, God is constantly God is saving Judea and even Israel because of His (God's) great love for David. This made me really think about David's story, what about it was so amazing that made God love him so much.

David obviously wasn't perfect, that can be witnessed when reading about his affair with Bathsheba where he had her husband killed because she was pregnant with his child. So if David wasn't perfect why did God love him so much? It's amazing how God hears our questions even when they are not spoken aloud, I have to tell you I have never heard so many sermons preached that talked about David in such a short time span in my life. I have also been led to so many verses lately about how much God loved David and why.

So here is what I have learned, yes David was a sinner. We are all sinners, since Adam and Eve ate the fruit in the garden we have all been sinners. David however gave his whole being into God's work, so immediately when Nathan came to him in (2 Samuel 12) he saw that he had sinned against the Lord and repented. God spared David because He knew that he was sincere in his repentance but David could not escape without some sort of punishment because sadly he would likely not have learned his lesson. His son died, but still David worship the Lord.

I love reading about David and God's love for David, I feel that there is so much for me to learn from him. Yes he was a sinner, but he loved God with his whole being. He wasn't afraid to show him any emotion, the psalms are filled with love, anger, sadness, all written by David. He felt things with everything he had because he was searching for the Lords heart and all these things are felt by the Lord. How Beautiful. This is something I want to eagerly chase after. 

Donald Miller

I have been a big Donald Miller fan for years but lately he has once again drawn my attention. He writes in such an honest manner about the things in life that actually matter. I just finished reading father fiction (formerly To own a dragon) and I don't want to say it changed my life because it didn't but it definitely showed me some areas in my life that I need to step up in. It really challenged me spiritually to stop accepting crap from past and to continue to trust in the Lord.

Anyways I stumbled upon his blog today and came across this...read it, it speaks truth.

http://donmilleris.com/2011/08/02/how-to-live-a-great-love-story/

Eastmore

Last night we were again invited to another school, this time it was at an all girls high school.  We did what has been our normal program, drama, preaching, testamonies, songs. This time however none of walked out of those doors wondering "did anyone hear us? Did God use us in any way?, etc". We know that God was moving in that room because after the program was over the girls rushed the team, begging to hear more testamonies from those on the team who hadn't spoken, they were exclaiming how wonderful and meaningful they thought the drama was to them. This alone would have been refreshing for the team but God carried it one step further. The girls asked awesome questions because they too wanted a deeper relationship with Jesus. Another praise is that  two of the girls who were in the audience sought out one of our girls on the team and confessed that they wanted to know Jesus too. They were right then in prayer in which they prayed that they would know the LOVE of God because they believed that Jesus died on the cross.

It was a powerful night for everyone. So powerful in fact they have invited the team back on sunday to hold a service for the whole school because last night we only had a portion of the students and they want us to speak to everyone in the school.

Thank you for your prayers already but we ask now that you be in prayer for sunday that we again be able to reach the students and build them up. Also we ask you to pray for those who want to know Jesus that they would continue with this hunger even long after we are gone. Thank you all!!

Bye!


This is another post that is taken from the trip blog

Singing in the Rain

This was a blog that was written and posted on my team blog site about our trip, but I thought I would share in on here as well....


The team was invited to hold a service at one of the local public schools in Eburru.  The plan was that we would sing a few songs, someone would preach, a few others would share some testimonies and the team would share a drama.

Before the team headed out, Scott prayed that all expectations would be destroyed.  It's a good thing our hearts were prepared because things did not go as planned.  We were originally were supposed to have 90 minutes, but we were quickly informed that plans had changed and we only had 40 minutes.  Almost right after arriving, the rain clouds started rolling in and down came the rain.

Instead of worrying, the team just went with it.  They cut short the signing, went straight to the drama in order to read the kids for the message which was to be delivered by Matt.  The kids were just mesmerized.  It didn't matter that we were all being soaked, they could not get enough of what He was doing.  After the preaching we decided that it would be best to send the kids home since it was still pouring out and everyone was getting thoroughly soaked.  The team intended to just sing as they were leaving, but instead they began to sing their hearts out to the Lord.  It was as if each person on the team was all alone with only the Lord in front of them.  It was one of the most powerful moments of the trip so far.


This is the song the team was singing in the rain...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_t_87NyHx0