Why I love Jesus

I am blessed by the ladies I work with! This week one of them shared with me what she is learning in her devotions. She wrote me a note of why she loves Jesus today, with scripture to back up each item. She said, "I feel like I've fallen in love with Jesus all over again. It is like rediscovering the most beautiful, passionate relationship there is to man. When you start looking for reasons why you love Jesus you won't be able to stop seeing it." Now we are constantly seeing blessings instead of things that are just not working out our way.

Our list is…

2 Samuel 22:47 Our God lives!

The beautiful reminder that our sins have been washed white as the snow outside
2 Samuel 22:31 God can be trusted
Ephesians 1:4-5 Before creation God chose us to be His daughters
Romans 8:15 We don’t have to fall back into fear
Romans 8:31-39 Nothing can separate us from Him
1 Corinthians 6:20 He paid the cost for us
He cast our sins as far as the east is from the west
He is infallible and He thinks of everything
We deserve Hell and there is nothing good in us
Christ goes before us
Galatians 2:20 He was crucified for me
Isaiah 26:3-4 He is trustworthy, perfect peace, and everlasting rock
2 Chronicles 20:12 He can fix our eyes on Him and He will overcome
God is always good and I am always loved
Deuteronomy 6:4-5 He is the one true God
Laminations 3:23 He is faithful
He loves me because He loves me
We are surrounded by people who love us
John 1:14-16 We have received gift upon gift
He is out pursuer
He is all we need
Psalm 16:2 The is no good but God
He created us with enough understanding to accept His love
Jeremiah 32:17 Nothing is too hard for Him
We can cast our cares on Him
Genesis 16:13-14 He is omniscient and is in total control over all things
I am constantly made aware of how messed up I am and how good He is
The sunrise this morning
The Gospel is why we love, why we have peace, and why we can choose joy

It's not about you

My walk leaving church

Last May I went to training before becoming an apprentice in Haiti. The other 20 or so people there were interning for the summer in a few different countries. One of the girls, Courtney, spent the summer in Kenya. When she started school again in the fall she started a blog for one of her classes talking about her time serving in Kenya. In October I read what she had to share. God told her, "Don't you see, none of this has to do with you? All of what you are participating in is about Me and furthering My kingdom. You can't be effective here unless you realize that you are nothing without Me and that your identity is in Me. You are not your clothes, your past, your hair, your story, you are simply my dear child." I did not want to hear this at the time. Isn't my story who I am? I thought I was in Haiti to be an example of Christ so lives would be transformed. Even now I have to remind myself that this, what I'm doing with my life, isn't about me. It's not even really about anyone who is watching my life. I am living a small story compared to the one God has written. The one where he and his kingdom are at the center. 

Dancing at the Christmas party in Mirebalais

During my time in Haiti God taught me who I am and that it's not prideful to own these characteristics. He revealed to me the image I had created of myself for protection from other's judgments. Once I was able to see and believe God's truth about me I was able to love others better. I am not as concerned about what others think or how they react to me. Now that I am confident in who I am I can see where God wants me to love and serve others.

If you know me, you know I like to read. I read a lot in Haiti and one book was called True Community by Jerry Bridges. In this book the author talks about the different ways Christians live. We should be abiding in Christ. This means instead of asking God for help to get through the day because of his power I should ask him to get me through the day because of his power. God and I are not equal working on a problem together, he is doing everything, and I am just the physical being here on earth the work is being attributed to.

Romans 15:18 God did his work through Paul. Paul acknowledged he does nothing on his own. 

Phil 2:13"For it is God who worketh in you both to will and do his will." 

Isaiah 26:12 "Lord you will ordain peace for us, for thou also has wrought all works after us."
Rms 8:28 and 2 Tim 1:9 I am called to do this right now, not because of my own works but because of his purpose and grace. It doesn't matter what I can do, I am called to do what God asks.

I noticed that the youth I became friends with want to evangelize to everyone they see and think that all Christians think this way. I am learning from them to tell my story so God is praised but it's not about me. It's not about them either, is it? The point is Christ.

My environment + My experiences = My truth

I do not claim to have a complete understanding of truth. I do not want to argue to prove what I have learned. I just want to share some revelations I have had while going through some studies this week.

Let’s start with what Jesus says in John 8: 31-32 “…If you continue in my word, then are you my disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

From this I see that Jesus’ teachings are the truth and the truth has power over bondage. We are free when we stay in the word of God.

In my studying about truth the idea of postmodernism came up. From the transition from Modernism to Postmodernism people started to believe that there is your truth and my truth. They would debate their truths not wanting to reach an agreement but to learn from each other’s experiences and to adjust their truth. Modernism died because man’s reason could not answer life’s mysteries or solve the world’s problems. Postmodernism is a worldview that denies all worldviews. A worldview is not what you see; your worldview is what you see with.

Looking at the title of this post, my environment + my experiences = my truth, my truth could also equal my worldview. The only way to know God’s truth is to stay in his word.  

Stuart McAllister lays out what truth, by nature, is…

It is non-contradictory – it does not violate the basic laws of logic

It is absolute – it does not depend upon any time, place, or conditions

It has to be discovered – it exists independently of our minds; we do not create it

It is descriptive – it is the agreement of the mind with reality

It is inescapable – to deny its existence is to affirm it (we are bound by it)

It is unchanging – it is the firm standard by which truth claims are measured

Everything in the Bible aligns with these six criteria.

Community

My main ministry is the work I do at CCH but on Wednesday mornings I go to a women’s Bible study at one of the churches in town, Northside. We are going through the book The Shelter of God’s Promises by Sheila Walsh. We sit in table groups of about eight ladies at each table and discuss the promise for the week.

Personally, I have really enjoyed this time because I have been able to interact with women in the community who I would otherwise not see. In my group there are women in all stages of life. There’s me, a newly graduate of college, few are new mothers and a few are grandmothers. Likewise we are all in different stages in our spiritual lives. One woman started following Christ later on in her life but because of how broken she was before she met Christ she has a lot to share and teach us. Another woman just started coming to Northside because her son said his friends from school went there and so he wanted to go there too. Another woman found Christ and her husband saw a change in her and wanted to know what had happened, so for years now instead of pretending they are Christians who went to church every Sunday they live their life for Christ. Another woman grew up in church like me; her and her husband went to a Christian college together. I may be the youngest but since I work at the Christian Campus House everyone seems to assume I know the most.

Our conversation usually starts out talking about the promise for the week. This morning it was the promise of hope, Hebrews 13: 5-6. In the process of our talking we start asking different questions and the topic moves from hope to actually knowing if God is there when you are praying to Him to how to forgive, to eating right, to Halloween to Christmas to being a good wife.  

I have left challenged every week to search for answers to their questions. I pray every week when I am sitting at the table for the Holy Spirit to give me words to say to speak truth into these women’s lives. Sheila said this morning to tell the truth, don’t hide what God is doing in your life, someone needs to hear about it.