Youth Camp

Welp, we're headed to youth camp this week. YAY! For those that haven't heard me say it about a million times already...camp week is my absolute FAVORITE week all year! I know for many of you, it's the same way. Isn't it wonderful that the closeness-to-God we experience at camp is intended for every day? That intimacy with Him, that feeling that He's hugging you tight into His chest, that feeling leaving camp where we don't want to leave...yes, all of that is intended for every day :)

God desires intimacy with us every morning.
He wants to begin our day by hugging us tightly to His chest speaking sweet words of His mercy.
And when we are so captured by this intimate hug, we don't want to ever leave His presence.

So whether you are headed to camp with us, or staying behind, I hope that you are being hugged by God. And if you're not one of those touchy-feely people and you're feeling a little weirded out by the image of God "hugging" you...don't worry, it's usually pretty uncomfortable for most people when God first begins to hug :) But, sooner or later, you won't ever want to leave His presence.

As things have gotten busy lately, I know I certainly have not guarded those few precious moments with Him in the morning, and I have certainly come to miss it. Isn't it a strange thing when we reach the place in our relationship with God that when we aren't with Him, we feel like we MISS him? The truth is, He is not far from each one of us (see Acts 17:27), but it is interesting to trace the path of our steps as we've gotten from the place of a lost little soul, to the place of a forgiven child who misses their dear God.

This post is a little shorter (quite a bit shorter, actually...which must be a relief to alot of you), and seems a little rant-y, but I still hope you are touched.

"The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning..." Lamentations 3:22,23

An undivided heart

Feeling distanced from God?

God says we will find Him when we seek Him with all of our heart. Now, if we are going to believe scripture, then we must believe that this, too, is true.

So if you are feeling distanced from God, could it be that your heart is divided among other things?

When I think back over my life, all the major significances that have taken place played the sole purpose of removing idols in my life--removing anything that held the affections of my heart other than Christ Himself. As these idols broke down, I truly began (and only began, as I'm still learning) to understand an intimate relationship with Him. Not only did I see that He was indeed close, but I actually began to feel His closeness as well.

God broke a high school relationship that He would become my first Love.
My first year of college, He moved me to a West Texas town 4 1/2 hours away from my family, my friends, and my home church--simply that He might become my Rock.
He threw me into a frenzy over my education--"what to do with my life"--so that I'd see that He is my life.

Even in Israel's history, we see God's deepest frustrations take place when His chosen people turned to idols, which is by definition, idolatry against their God, and the very source of defying His covenant.

Our relationship with God is explained in the most sacred ways a relationship can ever be respresented on earth--the relationship between a Husband and a Wife--the Marriage covenant.
A husband and wife are distanced from one another when they begin to turn to other lovers for affection--committing adultery against their spouse. Their heart is divided. It only makes sense that a God called our Husband, would desire every idol to be stripped from our lives--that we may have an undivided heart towards Him.

If you are feeling distanced from God, perhaps it is because you are distanced from Him.
Believe me, if you are His, then He's never left you. He's always been by your side.
Even now, he seeks to break you of your idols--the things that bar your heart from being taken captive by your Groom. These idols must go. As they begin to crumble away, you will see His face again. He will take the throne upon your heart, and become your Rock, firm through the fiercest drought and storm.

"They will return to it and remove all its vile images and detestable idols. I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God. But as for those whose hearts are devoted to their vile images and detestable idols, I will bring down on their own heads what they have done, declares the Sovereign Lord."   -Ezekiel 11:18-21

"Teach me your way, O LORD, and I will walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name."   -Psalm 86:11 

"We must look upon the world, with all its delights and all its attractions, with suspicion and reserve. We who love our Lord and whose affections are set on Heavenly things voluntarily and gladly lay aside the things that charm and ravish the world, that our hearts may be ravished with the things of Heaven; that our whole being may be poured forth in constant and unreserved devotion in the service of the Lord who died to save us."  -Amy Carmichael

 

The beauty of the Cross

I'm thinking about the power of the cross. We don't seem to understand it, really. I don't understand it fully, really.

I started thinking about this when I was reading a little passage from the YouthWalk magazines we get:

"Tell God what you're worried about and ask for His help. Then take some time remembering who He is. Remember that the entire universe is running because He sustains it. Remember that He loves you so much that He came to earth to die to set you free. Remember that Satan and all evil--even death--answers to Him. Breathe in His bigness. Rest in His power. Let your worries slide into perspective and receive the peace that He brings. Be healed."

For some reason, I started reading faster over the part that says "Remember that He loves you so much that He came to earth to die to set you free," like I was trying to hurry up and "get to the good stuff" or something. Get to the good stuff? Isn't our freedom in Christ pretty much the single thing that all of Scripture points to? So I asked myself why, then, did I try to go so quickly over that part of the passage?

And then I realized exactly why. If the Cross (and by "Cross" I'm talking about the death and resurrection of Christ) can be minimized in our heads and in our hearts, then we really have nothing to stand on. If we take the message of the gospel lightly then we don't even truly understand our own freedom (and by "freedom" I'm referring to the Christian, the reconciled to God, the Bride of Christ). If the Church doesn't stand on the Cross, and if we don't understand our freedom, then we think that sin still has a hold on us, that God's love isn't really all that intimately involved, and that being "set-apart" is merely referring to the movies we watch and music we listen to. And then I realized--what better mission for our enemy, Satan, than to minimize in our minds the power of the Cross? After all, the Cross is the focus of so many Old Testament stories, it's the very  reason Jesus came, and it's the saving grace to all who believe for when He comes back.

I don't know if it's because we in America hear about the Cross so much that we've just kind of become numb to it, or if we didn't really understand it in the first place, or if we say our "sinner's prayer" then don't grow much further after that, or if we've become so comfortable with ourselves that we don't rely on Him...i don't know. It kind of baffles me.

Anyway, I don't think we should approach life with the mentality that Satan is behind absolutely every "bad" thing that happens, or that there's a devil in every bush. After all, God certainly intentionally takes away things from us that we perceive as good (which may tempt us to think that the removal of these "good" things is bad), but it's all that we He may draw us deeper into Himself. But, this does seem to be one of the areas that Satan has snuck in there in attempts to discourage and deceive the Church. But, Bride, don't you think that we should cling to the Cross with every bit of our being? ....

Just for fun, here's the video to a pretty popular song on Christian radio these days that captures the Beauty of the Cross that we seem to have lost sight of. It's a video with the lyrics, so we can really dwell on the words and the amazing truth that this song captures so beautifully:

Beauty of the Cross - Jonny Diaz 

And, here's another video where Jonny Diaz explains the story behind the song. It's pretty simple, but I thought it was interesting nonetheless:

I hope you remember Jesus today, and the beauty of what He's done for you.

Hope

Tonight is not a good night. I just had a conversation with someone who is utterly without hope. I don't know if you've ever heard someone who has no hope, but it's one of the most difficult things to hear. Entirely broken, defeated, depressed, empty.

Sobbing in my arms, I didn't know what else to say to this person other than to point them to the only true and lasting Hope that I've ever known. "I don't want to talk about that," came the quiet words from this person's lips. An honest statement, but a gutwrenching rejection of the only One who can offer true comfort and peace in the midst of an entirely broken spirit.

I don't know how anyone has hope unless they know Christ. We spend our lives placing hope in a relationship, or a career, or grades, or in ourselves. But when it comes down to the deepest recesses of our souls and the most intimate places of our hearts, these things can never give us the hope we so desperately crave. When everything is falling apart, these things won't stand to hold us up.

Maybe you're hopeless tonight. Or maybe, like myself, you're sitting awake at 2:00am, thinking about how you have to wake up in a few hours to head to work or class, just clinging to the only Hope that you know. Whatever your situation, know this: there is a Savior, with arms open wide, offering true Hope in the midst of a world gone mad.

Have You Ever - Shawn McDonald

Have you ever wanted to be someone else

Have you ever wanted just to be someone

Have you ever wanted to reach your dreams

Have you ever wanted life to be more than it seems

I have tasted of a love so wide

That it stops all my time

I have tasted of a love so deep

That it blows my mind

Have you ever wanted to reach up and touch the sky

Have you ever wanted to pack it up and say goodbye

Have you ever wanted someone to care

Have you ever wanted someone to be there

He is sweet, He is sweet

What you're looking for

Is my sweet, sweet Jesus

What you're looking for

Is my sweet Lord 

The Outcast

From an interview with the Creative Director of SetApartGirl Magazine, Annie Wesche:

Another adventure led me to a leprosy village in remote China.  I was very intimidated by this, and was grabbing on to that “dependency” lesson every step of our trip.   Our group made plans to visit the village, bringing love, medical care, and supplies to the people there.  I was amazed at the reality of how rejected these people were, ostracized from society and nearly forgotten down the long dirt road that led to their hideaway.   It truly brought new emotion and understanding to the stories of Jesus’ encounters with lepers.

While touring their village, they led us to a very old and abandoned building, and to our surprise, we found a woman living in it.  It was so grievous to realize that these rejected people had outcast one of their very own - a blind and crippled woman had been left in a dark corner of the neglected building.

I’ll never forget what I heard Jesus say to me in that moment.  I was kneeling before the woman with a translator at my side and all I could see before me was ugliness.  Discomfort filled every bit of me and all my eyes could see were mangled feet, broken skin, blind eyes, and the stench of poverty.  I knew that God wanted me to embrace this woman with the love He had sent me to give, but I found myself wholly unable.  I offered my hand, and what was left of hers grabbed mine with such a desperation that I dropped my eyes to the ground and began pleading with God to give me what I knew I didn’t possess.  In that moment of simple asking and recognizing that my own measure would never be enough to give in the name of Christ, He answered,  “I will do it.”

That’s all it took.  I lifted my head and my eyes now saw a beautiful creation of God, who’s worth to Him was far more than my heart could hold.  A real, overruling love filled my heart and somehow my two arms found themselves wrapped around her whole body.  She began to shake and cried “I’ve missed you, I’ve missed you.”   How could a blind woman have missed me, someone she had never met?   Her blindness allowed for me to be removed and Christ was present.   This changed me.  I now know that no person is unreachable, no encounter too difficult, no challenge too great, that the indwelling Life of Christ cannot take it on victoriously and lovingly through my yielded life.

THIS, my friends, is the power of Christ working in and through us. Doing what we are unable to do. Loving those we can't love. Touching those we don't want to touch. Embracing the outcasts through our lives yielded to Him.

"Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight..." Hebrews 13:20,21

"Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen." Ephesians 3:20,21 

[read the entire interview with Annie here.]

Cry out all the more

There is a story in the book of Mark (10:46-52, to be exact) that brings me to tears. There's a blind beggar sitting on the road, when he hears that Jesus is coming his way. I imagine him sitting as he did every day, begging, since that was his only hope of making any amount of money to simply survive--he couldn't work, for he was blind. Resorted to beg on the streets day after day, not many noticed him, and even fewer cared.

Suddenly, he hears that this man who makes the lame walk and the deaf hear and the blind see is walking nearby his begging spot. He perks up at this new hope, this new chance to be healed, and he cries out with all of his might, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" Instead of being met with the hand of Christ, he is met with rebuke from others passing by, telling him to be quiet, to stop shouting. After all, why would anyone at all, especially Jesus, notice the obnoxious beggar who yelled out every day for someone to notice him?

But instead of being quiet, the blind man "cried out all the more" (v.48). Instead of being silent as they commanded him, he got louder! Jesus, noticing this man's eagerness, called him to him. So the surrounding people tell him "Take heart. Get up; he is calling you" (v.49).

The scripture says that he throws off his cloak, springs up (this weak, famished beggar), and goes to Jesus.

"And Jesus says to him, 'What do you want me to do for you?' (v. 51).

I imagine the blind man grasping Jesus' ankles, or perhaps pleading, out of breath, on his knees at Jesus' feet.

"And the blind man said to him, 'Rabbi, let me recover my sight.'"

A simple request. But one only Jesus could grant.

"And Jesus said to him, 'Go your way; your faith has made you well.' And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way." (v. 52).

It's a beautiful picture of someone changed by Christ. And the part that brings tears to my eyes is that when the crowd rebuked him, telling him to stop calling out for Jesus, he called out ALL THE MORE! How many times do we face the rebuke of those around us and quiet our voice, afraid to speak boldly for fear of persecution or embarrassment or of offending someone? I sure know I have been guilty, and I'm ashamed.

But the blind man realized who it was walking by him, so no way was he going to stop calling for him. Do we realize who it is before us? Do we even realize that Jesus Christ Himself walks in front of us, calling us to follow Him on His way?

As I think of chasing after Christ, pursuing Him and His ways with all of my heart, I also think of loved ones that decide not to go with me. And what about those that rebuke? Those that say the truly set-apart, Christ-pursuing path is foolish? When faced with their rebuke, will we not "cry out all the more" for Jesus, having the faith that He asks us to have?

I guess it really comes down to a matter of trust--do we trust this Jesus? Do we actually believe the things He said--that we have no reason to fear, for we are of much more worth than the sparrows and the lilies of the field? Do we believe Him that in His arms is the power to heal, for He is the Great Healer. Do we believe Him when He says that His grace is sufficient for us? And here's a big one--do we actually believe Him when He says that He is worth the cost of giving up our very lives? After all, the entire message of the Scriptures in regards to following Christ involves a DYING to ourselves. Why is it, then, that we think that we can cling to parts of the world, parts of our old nature, and still claim to be walking according to His Spirit? Don't get me wrong here, perfection is not possible to achieve this side of heaven, but God's power at work in us DOES bring us closer and closer to the perfection of Christ, as we are conformed more and more to His image.

Perhaps now I'm just rambling on, but I want to close with this--when others rebuke you when you decide to follow Christ with all of your heart (and they WILL rebuke you, for you will begin to look very strange to the world, and even to other Christians that still hold on to the world), remember the promises of God's word. Actually BELIEVE Him for the things He says. Write these words on your heart, and begin each day at His feet. Because there is no way that you or I will ever walk faithfully in the set-apart path we are called to unless we confess that we can't in our own power. Humbly and honestly sit at Jesus' feet, willing to learn from Him what it means to follow Him, and even what it means to actually believe Him for what He said. And when others rebuke you, call out all the more for Jesus. If you are willing to walk faithfully with Him, He will take you by the hand and lead you as you follow him on The Way.

"I have decided to follow Jesus...
Though none go with me, I still will follow...
No turning back, no turning back."

Taste and see that the Lord is good

I've been reading biographies. Yes, biographies. Sounds boring? Yeah, I used to think it would be, too. However, the more of these biographies I read, the more of them I want to dive into.

So far I've read biographies on Gladys Aylward and Corrie ten Boom, and right now I'm reading one about those five missionaries that went to the Auca tribe to deliver Good News to this people group that had never heard the name of Jesus before--perhaps you've heard of their story? The movie End of the Spear is a retelling of Elisabeth Elliot's account, Through Gates of Splendor, the book I'm reading now. Anyway, I've only read a few short chapters, but the few paragraphs I just read I feel like I must share with you.

Before I do, I just want to ask you if you've ever truly known God's voice speaking to you? I think it was several years after being a Christian before I truly began recognizing God's voice speaking so intimately to me. Anywho, this is how Nate Saint (one of the five missionaries) described the moment he realized what God was intimately calling Him to:

At a New Year's Eve worship service, he felt that the Lord was turning his heart to the mission field. "What was going on in the service wasn't important," he recalled later. "I wasn't hearing anything with my ears, anyhow. I pleaded helplessly with my Heavenly Father for the answer that stood between me and the peace that Jesus had said should be ours. Now, you've heard about people being spoken to by God. I don't know about the other fellow, but that night I saw things differently...BING...like that. Just as though a different Kodachrome slide had been tossed onto the screen between my ears. As soon as I could, I stepped out of the building and started out...just to get away from people...A joy, such as I had never known since the night I accepted Jesus' forgiveness for my sins, seemed to leave me almost weak with gratitude. It was the first time that I had really ever heard that verse: 'Follow me, and I will make you to become fishers of men.' The old life of chasing things that are of a temporal sort seemed absolutely insane."

I would love to give you some speech about how we are all missionaries, whether in Nigeria or South Asia or Lake Dallas or New Orleans or Canada. I would love to preach to you about how, if you're a Christian, then you have a ministry, whether you like it not, etc. etc. etc. However, I know that I can't. Not because it's not true, but because I know that you will never see it until God speaks it into your own heart.

I can tell you a million times that we should be telling our friends about Christ, and we should be witnessing and sharing our faith. However, unless the goodness of Christ is real to you, you won't tell any friend or witness about anything or share your faith with anyone.

So instead, this is what I would like to tell you: I hope that you will walk so closely beside your Lord Jesus that you truly begin to regard Him in your heart as a dear friend. That as you sit with Him, pouring over Scripture and journaling to Him and praying to Him, then you will begin to see His goodness. And I believe that if we see His goodness, then we won't not be able to share it. I so deeply want His goodness to become something that is SO REAL to us, and not some "because-you're-a-Christian-this-is-what-you-believe" kind of a thing--but that God brings us to and through some tough times and holds us close right in the middle of them, simply so that we can see that He is GOOD. Sharing His goodness, sharing our faith, will become an overflow of our hearts, not something that feels forced as though we must share our faith in order to keep up good standing at church, or some other silly thing like that.

It sounds crazy, I know, but if you walk closely by Him, in time, I believe you will hear His sweet voice speaking into your heart. It might come with a bit of difficult conviction, it might come with some tender words of His sweet love for you, or it might come with a little bit of both these things. However He speaks to you, the more time you spend in His presence the clearer His voice will become to you.

Remember the last blog? About God breaking the wordly things holding our hearts, simply that we can know Him more deeply? Well, I'm finding that one of His favorite things to break us of is time spent on useless things. So let's step away from Facebook, put the iphone away, and get alone with God. Let's talk to Him, let's read His Word, let's journal to Him, let's sing a song to Him...whatever you choose. And I think you'll find that the things we obsess about (Facebook, Skype, texting, Jersey Shore, movies, etc.) really aren't true necessities after all.

I hope that you will wholeheartedly chase after Him instead of the things of the world.

I think you'll find that in light of God's goodness, "the old life of chasing things that are of a temporal sort [is] absolutely insane."

I think you'll find that the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.

There is no hope for you in the world, though it sure will tell you that you can do anything you set your mind to. Especially for you seniors--I'm sure you guys have heard plenty of speeches about the "bright future ahead" and "becoming all you were meant to be", yada yada yada. One problem--those speeches left no mention of God; they encouraged you to trust in yourself, and to trust in the world.

Instead, set your gaze on Christ -- "Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame (Psalm 34:5)". This is a precious secret that the world will never reveal to you.

Sit with Him, learn just how truly GOOD He is, and in time, you WILL hear His sweet voice.

"Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him." Psalm 34:8