Grasping Eternity

This week I read a number of things that I think ultimately informed what I can only describe as a brief epiphany. In "Approved unto God" Oswald Chambers writes:

God buries His men in the midst of paltry things, no monuments are erected to them, they are ignored, not because they are unworthy but because they are in the place where they cannot be seen. Who could see Paul in Corinth? Paul only became marvellous[sic] after he had gone. All God's men are ordinary men made extraordinary by the matter He has given them. God puts His workers where He puts His Son. This is the age of the humiliation of the saints.

This hits home because of all of the amazing men and women I know and have had the pleasure to know whose names will never be in the papers. Whose sermons won't be sold on iTunes and whose lives will never be recorded in a book. They all deserve such gratitude, I'm surrounded by giants, and yet in this life they won't receive it.

However "this is the age of the humiliation of the saints," and what's to come is the glorification of our Lord in His fullness. And if we've placed ourselves firmly in Him by his grace we stand only to shine with Him. This comforts me as I see great men and women strive and struggle to further God's kingdom with no hope for respite, this is only a passing moment.

And then it hit me while I was in bed the other night, I'm eternal. Not in the sense that God's omnipresence is eternal, I'm a finite being with a beginning point within His creation. But I'm eternal from this point on, for better or for worse.

Thankfully it's by God's good grace that it's for better through the death of His Son, and it's my privilege to join Him in whatever work He calls me to. And that work will last forever.

It changes ones perspective to realize that this short period of misery and humiliation is only to last for the first few seconds of the rest of eternity. It makes the misery a joy and the humiliation a burden for which I am grateful.

Life holds purpose, eternal purpose, and it's in this short span of time that I must work my hardest to ensure that my actions ripple throughout eternity in a way that will affect it for the better. God is good and though I'm undeserving of what I've been given in every way I'm ultimately all the more grateful for it.

am I talking to myself?

I often have conversations in my head, don’t you? It’s normal…I think. But I just realized something important about my ‘conversations’. In the book “Humility” by CJ Mahaney, he asks the question – “Did you spend more time speaking truth to yourself, or was most of your time spent listening to yourself?” I had never thought of it that way before. He goes on to say, “As we stumble through our morning routine, we’re not directing the thoughts in our mind – we’re simply at their mercy…We’re not in charge of our thinking. We’re just there.” I don’t want to be ‘just there’, it sounds like I’m drifting. I have come to realize that my battle with sin begins in my MIND. So when my thoughts ‘drift around’, they usually land in bad places. So what am I going to do now? This book gives some good suggestions on ways to renew my thinking. Mahaney says that he’s learned to “go on the offensive. I’ve chosen to announce to sin, ‘I’m at war with you. I know you’re there, and I’m after you.’” I want to be filling my brain with God’s Word and to be telling myself TRUTH instead of listening to my racing thoughts. There is another thing I can do to help me in the battle. Invest in others. I can think more of my wife and children. I can encourage and pray for the people in our small group. I can care more about others rather than being so inwardly focused. Wow, it sounds like being more like Christ. I need help. Please pray for me to learn this. And ask me how I’m doing.

Staying in the Battle,
Geoff

The Hungry and the Poor

So first off i don't think i should eat anymore!! lol this book makes me realize how American I really am, and how much our culture takes everything for granted. We are a very very unthankful and selfish nation, a day after claiming to be "thankful" how do we celebrate our thankfulness. We go out and trample people to death so we can get the latest toys and comforts. Very ironic!

But anyways that's not what i wanted to write about, that was me saying that I have been thinking a lot about the poor and the needy while reading this book. :) And I have found it very interesting and am realizing how little I have truly thought about what the Bible says about the poor. I thought chapter 3 was especially interesting and was going to see what you guys thoughts were?
I thought it was a very interesting picture the author painted when giving all the passages about the poor and oppressed and how God saves them from the oppression and then opposes the rich and so I was thinking where does that put us as a Nation?

Amazing Grace

Hey ya'll I just wanted to write a little blurb on some Truth that has really been breathed into my soul these past couple of days. I've come to find that my anxiety over my faith and my relationship with Christ rested in the fact that I was focusing on what Christ could do for me and not what I was meant to do for Christ. Do not misunderstand me, I know that it is by faith and not works that I am saved. However as Britney pointed out in our early monday morning meeting that to work in faith for the Lord reaps a lot of blessings and truth that our Lord wants to give us. So what am I trying to say? I've found that when I focus on loving others and focus finding their beautiful fruits of the Spirit that I truly "see the face of God" (quote taken from Les Miserables). All this was only solidified when I finished reading the book, "Humility: True Greatness" by C. J. Mahaney.

"On one occasion, a relative of Dave (dying from cancer) was visiting, a man who was not a Christian. As he watched Sharon caring for Dave and thought about Dave's relative youth and the children he would leave behind, anger seemed to well up from within him - anger directed at the God whom Dave and Sharon were professing to believe in.

He asked Sharon, "Why aren't you angry?"

She turned to him and answered with the true of the gospel: "Dave deserved hell for his sins, just like you and me, and yet God, in His mercy, forgave him because of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Dave is going to heaven," she said. "How could I be angry at God for taking him to heaven?" (Mahaney, 2005, pp. 150-151)

This passage sent chills up my spine. The posture I must/need/will take is humility towards my God. I feel so incredibly humbled and realize just how amazing blessed I am not only to be alive in the Lord but to be given so much on top of that, friends, family, good health, this internship, life (thanksgiving could not have come at a better time!), good food, college... I could go on and on. Yet, I am a sinner, I deserve to die for my sin, my ugly sin that keeps me from being with Christ. The Cross has so much more meaning for me then I will ever truly be able to grasp. All I can think to do it follow the God who has set me free from pride (though I know I will regress while still on this earth). My heart is singing praises right now, if only I could express the holy, inexhaustible joy of knowing that I deserve to die but Christ died for me, so that I didn't have too. The grace that God has for his children is beautiful.

But here to I can relate to Paul's lament:

"21So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22For in my inner being I delight in God's law; 23but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. 24What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!" Romans 7:21-25

This is Truth. Let us rejoice and be glad in it!

Lord,
Thank you for the many blessing you have poured out on such undeserving children, your love is holy. I pray Thanksgiving for your grace and that I may delight in it for the rest of my days. Your face is beautiful to me. I pray for the discipline of humility.

Amen.

Love,
Sister Leslie

PS: I realize my little blurb turned into a big blurb. :)

heart reaction

This is delayed, but reading Monique’s post motivated me to share where my heart is at this very moment...

I’m trying this fasting business. I’ve had amazing experiences with it in the past, yet I’m really stuggling with it this time. I feel like I don’t have time for this. Simply cutting coffee out of my life for just a few days, and I feel like I can’t function. Is it forcing me to rely on Him…or am I just adapting my schedule to make sure I can survive. Why am I doing this again?? I want to know you!! But I don’t want it to cost me anything. Lame! Is my heart really benefitting from this? I feel like if I were more awake I would be able to soak in my time with Him in the morning, and take in the info from class and really engage in the lives of my classmates. That’s the reality of it. Am I just a wuss? Should I be experiencing His supernatural energy?? Is it wrong to be reliant on caffeine? I just want to hear from Him. I don’t feel like I function as a sheep that hears His voice. I’ve experienced that life, able to hear His sweet whispers. I miss it. I feel like I’m getting sucked up in the mess of life.

Knowing I'm still in His arms,
Brittany

RETURN

I have a choice today to be Holy Spirit filled or myself filled. It’s a no-brainer in my head, of course I want God to lead me and to be fully surrendered to my Lord Jesus Christ, but then I get out of bed. And it’s past 6am so there’s no time for a deep meaningful quiet time I’m already behind for the day. Excuses. Whispers. They say I live out what I truly believe not just what I say I believe, my actions speak louder than my good intentions, then I must think it’s all on me - no one has time to care. I’m in charge of my life and I better protect myself from all the a--holes and idiots out there who don’t care about me and want to take advantage of me and my family. Lies.

But God. God is here with me. He hears. He cares. He waits. He loves me no matter what I do or say today, or what I don’t do or say. Be with God. Listen. I have a choice who I’m listening to today and I’m pretty tired of listening to me. My plans and expectations are exhausting and never-ending and never done quite “right”. Bebo Norman sings, “I’m so tired of it being about me.” Tired. My friend Michael Dye spoke frankly to my heart and said, “It’s time to kill the bitch, Monique.” Perfectionism breeds hopelessness and strangles joy. Don’t let the Devil win anymore. I return to my Savior, my Redeemer, my Lover of my soul. “Oh, Father, forgive me! I did it again.” Forgiveness covers me as I’m held in the bosom of my Daddy, my Abba. Receive. I want to be vulnerable and fresh and alive with Christ’s Spirit. Live wildly for the Lord. So I will return often to His well of never-ending grace and love, and drink of Him throughout my day. His thoughts are higher than my thoughts. His ways are higher than mine. May I believe God and live.

In His loving arms,
Sister Monique

“Wake up little girl. There’s a song to sing inside you. Wake up little girl. There’s a dance within your heart. You’re a miracle and all the world will someday want to know you. Wake up little girl, look inside and find True Love.” By Janet Planet

random thoughts

Oh Lord you are the one I take refuge in you are the one who makes the noise fade away. Let my heart break for those around me. You are the one who makes all things come into being. Lead this time of reflection be present in all moments weather asleep or awake. Change me into a woman who is wrapped up with a yearning the goes above my knowledege here and now of the Gospel.

I am so amazed by what the Lord is doing in this internship. It has only been a couple of weeks but the Lord is moving powerfully. just pondering life's question of what is it that we are truely living for? what is is that makes us so different as Christians?


A quote came to mind when reflecting on this idea so i thought i would share it

"I'm a part of the fellowship of the unashamed. I have the Holy Spirit Power. The dye has been cast. I have stepped over the line, the decison has been made. I am a disciple of His. I won't look back, let up, slow down, back away, or be still. My past is reedeemed, my present makes sense, my future is secure. I' m finished and done with low living, sight walking, small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tame visions, worldly talking, cheap giving, and dwafted goals. I no longer need preeminence, prosperity, postion, promotions, platitudes or popularity. I don't have to be right, first, recongized, praised, reguarded or rewarded. I now live by faith, lean on his presence, walk by patience, am lifted up by prayer and labor by power. My face is set, my gate is fast, my goal is heaven, my road is narrow, my way rough, my companions are few, my guide reliable, my mission clear. I cannot be bought, compromised, detoured, lured away, turned back, deluded or delayed. I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of the adversary, negogiate athe table of the enemy, ponder at tht pool of popularity, or meander in the maze of mediocrity. I won't give up, shut up, let up until I've stayed up. I am a disciple of Jesus. I must go till he comes, give till I drop, preach till all know, work till he stops me, and when he comes for his own, he'll have no problem recognizing me at all. " unknown author


This author says it far better than I ever could. I want this kind of passion and view of life. I want to live like this.
sister Heather

"Come as you are."

It's hard to be real online, I'm kind of anxious about what people will think of me and how they will judge me. I do not know who is going to be reading this but I pray that they may see humanity, humility and God in what I write.

Here it goes...

My soul is worn out, I have been playing tug-o-war with my soul, my faith, my God and it has left me weary and down-trodden. This week I have found that my lack to trust and have faith in God is one of the most crippling defects I have in my faith. What frustrates me the most is that I know that daily prayer and reading the Bible will increase my faith, hope and joy in the Lord. This I know, but I allow my sin to take over. I am blessed to be in this internship and yet humiliated by my lack of faith. Brother Russ talked about creating "SMART goals" ones you can actually attain within a short amount of time and I realize I need to step up to the challenge, step up to my sinful, unholy and unrighteous self and believe that God's grace, mercy and love can bring me out of this "muddy pit, and put a new song on my lips, a hymn of praise to my God" (Psalm 40).

I have to give thanks for the amazing people I work with at New Community. I am so excited to see where our different ministries take us. I am starting up an outdoor ministry that will hopefully take off more fully in the spring and working with Brother Caleb and Brother Karl in prison ministry and with Sister Heather in the teen pregnancy ministry. I am very excited and cannot wait to get those off the ground.

I am reminded of James 1:2-4 (ironically the verses we need memorized) and I know with the slightest amount of joy that God is making me and those around me who are running the Race stronger than ever.

Amen.

Peace and Love from Sister Leslie.

THE FIRST INTERN POST OF THE YEAR!

COMING SOON TO THEATERS NEAR YOU!

-Sister Leslie

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This is a test, this is only a test. Wakka wakka wakka.