Friday, July 10, 2009

Eat, Sleep, Think and Pray












Location: Near the bedroom window overlooking the small French village (a little before 8:00am on Friday, July 10)

Certainly the past weeks of my journey have been exhausting; I can tell because I rested well for a long time last night, yet I could easily return to dreamland for a little while. I am catching up from all the busy adventures. What a respite this week has been! Yes, I did get to help with firewood yesterday, and I have helped make dinner and weed flower beds, not to mention several opportunities of nice kitchen pace (now kitchen paix). But I have been able to rest, to catch up on emails and laundry, to walk in the countryside, to visit area monuments, and to converse with neighbors over meals. It has been a much needed period of recovery, and I am very happy here.

For example, yesterday morning I meandered through the village and sat in the empty church while it rained. After lunch and some kitchen paix, I took a long walk in the countryside among the cows and beehives. Then my hostess, N., took me to see the World War I American Cemetery (the largest in Europe), as well as a couple other American war memorials. Then I helped load and unload firewood, and I had dinner next door, getting beat in Connect 4 by a seven-year-old. (Check out the photos--more to come--not bad for a broken camera, eh?)

This has given me lots of time to pray and to think. Here are some of my thoughts:

While I am being blessed with peace, I dare not lessen my intercession for those near and dear to me. Please join me in praying for M., the nephew of my hostess who was suddenly admitted to the hospital yesterday with an odd inflammation of a gland in his abdomen. Please pray for T., a young boy and friend of mine in Indiana who had beat cancer a year or two ago, only to have a brain tumor found last week and surgery on the 4th of July. Please continue to pray for God's work in Romania as this week's wheelchair distribution wraps up having gone well, but also having exhausting the team's energy, patience, and resources.

Just before I came to this village, I stained my light-khaki shorts with yellow curry. We have tried and tried to remove the stain, with no success. Soon I think we are going to try dying them. It makes me think about the little sins that we so often let creep into our lives. We do not think too much of them, and at some point we try to remove them ourselves. We only make things worse, and the stains remain. Finally, we decide that since we cannot remove them, we should try to cover them up. Concerning short pants, that might be okay. Concerning sins, I am glad we have a Savior who died that we might be forgiven.

The Lord not only provides, but He protects. He is a shield about me. How can I be afraid?

I love this village, and except for a couple things, I really think I could live here. We will see what the LORD has in store. Whatever His plans, they will be wonderful! I am praying about the coming months, because I am guessing that if I decide to change my September plane ticket, I should do so soon; there are some other things I would like to do here. Yet without a visa, I would be unable to legally stay in this part of Europe much longer. Soon I will be working at a camp, and I have been making some tentative plans to meet up with friends during some free weeks.

Just as I was surprised at how well I was able to communicate in Romanian, I am pleased with how quickly my French has returned, and how easy it is to switch back and forth between that and English.

Produce straight from the garden, eggs straight from the chickens, cherries straight from the trees always taste better than any other kind of food, especially when the former is prepared in a French village kitchen!

Would you be amazed if I told you that the baker comes through each day to sell bread in this village? That gives a new meaning to "Give us this day our daily bread..." Other services are sold here, too, like the butcher or the milkman. The school meets in the same building as the courthouse and has probably twenty kids through fifth grade. Though most people in town have cars, there is a bus that comes through, and the neighbors help each other out when they do not have transportation. I discovered yesterday that the population here is technically 199--so for now, I am number 200!

I bless you in the Name of Jesus, the Bread of Life who gives us our daily bread and removes our stains!






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A Rose From Home

A Rose From Home

My Story (As prepared for my church congregation this spring--2009)


I have a story to tell you. I am the main character, but the story is not about me. I have traveled several parts of the world, but my adventure has been closer to home. I am twenty-six years old. My story begins like many of yours…

I grew up going to church. I had been born into a family who labeled themselves “Christian,” in a country that labels itself “Christian.” Every Sunday found me attending a worship service and Sunday school in a mainline denomination church. I served as an acolyte, attended Vacation Bible School, helped my dad count and record the offering money, sang in the youth choir, was a leader in the youth group, and occasionally served as liturgist. Baptized as an infant, I was confirmed at the age of twelve, thus becoming an “official” member of the church. Then, hurt by the church, my family left to find another.

Have you ever been hurt by the Church?

After months of searching, we settled into a very large independent church. Things were different there, and I was quickly welcomed and at home among new friends that truly had a passion for Jesus. The Word of God was taught boldly from the pulpit, and I was introduced to a missions-aware lifestyle. So it was with regret that I said goodbye only a couple of years later to move with my family to another church. I purposely remained aloof, not wanting to make new friendships before I left for college a year later. Besides, I was loosing my faith—or so I thought—and I didn’t want anyone to know. I was asking scary questions like “Is there really a God?” and, if so, “Is He the Christian God?” and “Would I be Christian if I had been born in another part of the world?”

Have you ever asked yourself unsettling questions about what you believe?

So I headed into college under a cloud of confusion that only worsened for the next two years. Though I didn’t know what I believed anymore, I continued to go to church every Sunday, and to help lead worship in chapel. Most importantly, even during this questioning, I continued my morning habit of daily study of the Bible. I had begun at age twelve, reading at first a chapter per day, then ten minutes each morning, then an half-hour, and so on. So, only by the grace of the very God I doubted, I remained anchored in His Word and in His community, though I felt like a fake most of the time. Since then I have learned that “fake” is the worst insult the world can give us; that is why the label of “hypocrite” is so offensive.

Have you ever felt like a fake?

Six weeks with missionaries in South Africa followed by a year in France began to teach me what life with God is all about. I began rebuilding my faith, this time it belonged to me, in contrast to me borrowing the faith of my parents, church, or anyone else. In my parent’s basement in 2003, on either Christmas Eve or New Year’s Eve, I invited Jesus to live in me; perhaps I had done so before, but I didn’t recall—but since 2003, I have never forgotten that moment. Unfortunately, nothing changed. I continued to do my best to act like a Christian, as I had done for so long.

Have you ever found yourself “doing your best” to be a good person, or to act like a Christian?

Though I did not realize it at the time, I was quenching the Spirit, even though I had welcomed Him into my life. During the next few years, the LORD continued to nurture me, and slowly things began to change. Several tough months in Idaho birthed my prayer-life. I spent three years being humbled in a job that was my informal seminary training. In 2007, a short stint in Mexico helped me to see things as they were, and not long afterward, I was baptized by immersion. No baptism of any kind can save a lost soul—only Jesus can do that. However, this baptism was an important covenant between me and God, symbolizing not only my death and resurrection with Jesus and my public profession of faith, but it also my life change, the beginning of my bearing fruit. “For each tree is known by its own fruit…”according to Luke 6:44. During the past year and a half, the LORD has provided me with an informal pastoral internship in my church, teaching me every aspect of discipleship. Simultaneously, I have been studying unceasing prayer and worship. I am now very different than I was five years ago.

In the Book of Acts (which tells the story of the earliest years of the Church) every time a person decided to follow Christ, two things took place—though not always in the same order. Each person experienced a life change, which I call the “baptism of repentance,” as well as the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, which I call the “baptism of the Spirit.” Looking back, I realize that the Holy Spirit was living in me in 2003, but it wasn’t until I surrendered everything to God, as represented by my immersion, that I allowed the Spirit to have His way in me and transform my life. “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now life in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. (Galatians 2:20)”

Have you invited Jesus to live in you? Have you allowed the Spirit to transform your life?

I tell you this story for two reasons. First, I tell this story in order to boast in the LORD! May God our Father get all praise and glory forever! Second, I tell this story because it is relevant to you. Likely you have heard that I am leaving the country: I have let my light shine before you; please let your light shine within the Church, too! This congregation is in revival, and as each of you allows the Spirit to revive you, the entire Church will be revived and utterly transformed, to the glory of the Most High God. And for His glory is the reason He created us; the reason He sent His only Son to reveal Himself to us; the reason He became Sin for us and died for us on the cross—while we were still sinners; and the reason that He conquered death and offered us eternal life with Him.

It will cost you a lot—in fact, it will cost you everything, your very life. But if you have never surrendered your life to Christ Jesus, if you have never invited Him to send His Spirit into you and to transform your life, then do it right now. Just let go of everything to which you are desperately clinging; stop trying to do it yourself! This is the very reason you are still breathing in this physical life—God has been delaying His judgment of this sinful world because He is waiting for you—2 Peter 3:9 says He wants none to perish!

If you have already invited the Spirit into your life, then live like it! Bear fruit! Anyone and everyone who meets you or knows you or sees you or hears you should know immediately and clearly that Jesus the Christ lives in you and loves them! That is how stark the contrast should be between your life and the world around you!

Have you immersed yourself in God’s Word and in prayer in the last twenty-four hours?

If you call yourself a follower of Christ, then there is no excuse for not communing with Him daily! Anchor yourself in the Word! God has revealed Himself to us through His Son, Jesus Christ, and the Bible is a complete and accurate record of that revelation. And prayer is humbly letting Him love us. Let Him love you! God doesn’t need us, but He wants us! God doesn’t need us to live for Him—He wants to live in and through us! Let us love and fellowship with one another, even when you disagree! Pray for each other—the names in the church directory are a great place to start! Church, we are not only the Body of Christ, but we are the Bride of Christ. We have allowed ourselves to get bedraggled and stained—now let us stand to the glory of God! Let’s let Him purify us, restore us, and love us!

My dear Brothers and Sisters, if you have ever once been blessed by God our Father at work in me, then I urge you, please, take seriously His desire to love and work in you, beyond anything you can ask or imagine! I have told you the beginning of my story—may it end in glory to the Father, in the Name of Jesus, by way of His Spirit.

Now, what is your story?