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
No comments:
Post a Comment