East of Jordan

Do you ever have one of those moments when you realize just how small you are, and how big this world really is?

Hamba nathi Mkhululi wethu,
hamba nathi Mkhululi wethu.

Mkhululi, Mkhululi, Mkhululi wethu,
Mkhululi, Mkhululi, Mkhululi, wethu.

You are holy, you show us the way,
you are holy, you show us the way.

You show us, you show us, you show us the way.
You show us, you show us, you show us the way.

It’s a traditional South African hymn, and today it has reminded me of the beauty of praise and how small my praise must be in the ears of the Almighty.

And yet He listens. So I continue to praise and beg his attention.

Quick note to the twitter world:

After a month of twitter, I’ve deleted my account.

Point in case: I found it annoying and just personally useless.

Sorry to all you faithful social media-ites! I know this will hurt you deeply, but it was just one more piece of clutter in my already cluttered life.

Hopefully I can take the left over minutes I used on twitter and focus it more on this blog.  In the end, a better decision I believe.

No, that wasn’t a typo: Have a Happy Thanksgiving…Hannah Happy Thanksgiving. Haha yeah well…

The point: Someone who has been central, wow- even more than that, someone who has been a truly life changing example in my life as of late has been Hannah.

That would be Hannah from the Bible.

She makes her entrance in the first chapter of 1 Samuel as the mother of the future prophet and priest. She is a women who cries out, with pure and holy intentions, for a child and who is answered by God. Her prayers and passages of Thanksgiving are incredible and I’ve learned so much about prayer and attitude of the heart through her.

But here’s what has made the biggest impression on me: After having received Samuel from God, her only son, she makes a sacrifice of Thanksgiving to God by fulfilling her vow to dedicate Samuel to God. Literally giving him up, so that he could be raised by the priest Eli for God’s purposes.

Excuse me, wow.

And get this, after having offered up this sacrifice to God, the Lord grants her not just another child, but she goes on to have three other sons and two daughters. God honors those who honor Him.

This is probably one of the easiest concepts to grasp and most difficult to live out.

Often in worshiping God and bringing Thanksgiving to Him, we are called on to sacrifice. God calls us out of our comfort zone and asks us to take that infamous step of faith off the cliff of certainty and into what seems to be a very difficult and painful decision.  But if we take that step and we work out of faith, God will honor that decision. It’s not easy, it’s not fun–but it’s what living for Christ means, and yes it’s crazy.

Trust me, I know. I am currently standing at that same cliff, weighing many different career decisions in my hand. And really there’s no wrong answer, but there’s certainly a right answer. I won’t go into details now, as it would just be opening up a box of details that probably wouldn’t interest you.

But God has been teaching me, and maybe He’ll be teaching you, that He was the God of Hannah and He is the God of me. He will honor me when I honor Him.

So, I’m learning to close my eyes and jump off the cliff. I’m learning to sacrifice a Thanksgiving offering.

And here’s a quick warning, I’ll be blogging on Samuel and Hannah a lot–I hope you follow along!

Until then, Happy Thanksgiving Friends.

Woops!

It’s been a while…you know the drill : time’s just been slipping through my hands! But if anyone is that upset, just let me know and I’ll fly to your location and buy you a cuppa tea or coffee to make up for it.

Woops!

I just lied–probably won’t be flying to Jordan or Cote d’Ivoire anytime soon, but if you’re in the D.C. area, your next Starbucks run is on me.

I promise to be back in action this week, but for now I just want to leave you with a passage that’s been on my heart the past few weeks. It’s Mark 11:22:-25

“Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. “I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘God throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”

I don’t what your situation is today or where your heart is, but I know that whether you have all your need or are unsure if you will be able to make it through one more day–there is no fear in faith.

God is listening, so throw caution to the wind and pray.

I have a twitter account.

*gasp*   *cringe*    *tear*   *shudder*

I’ve had one for quite a while. I just never used it…or told anyone.

I can’t help but cling to the view that online “social” network tools such as twitter, myspace or facebook feed the isolationist tendencies of our society–allowing us to build up facades, instead of community.  It’s an artificial environments that breeds artificial personalities. I know this, because I’m also guilty of it.  And if twitter wasn’t a requirement for one of my classes this semester, I most likely would still not have activated my account.

But here I am, thanks to Arabic 202, with yet another online account.

Confession: I really don’t hate twitter.  I realize the benefits and I’ll be using and updating my account regularly.  It’s a great tool for ministries, businesses, schools, bands–Absolutely.

What I hate is the type of living twitter encourages, a safe living where people don’t have to reach out of their comfort zone or be confronted with the reality their own lives. That’s my concern.

But, love it or hate it, twitter’s found a place on this blog!

My brother is getting married on Saturday.

Can I just repeat that?

MY BIG BROTHER IS GETTING MARRIED.

Now that we’ve solidified that fact in your brain, let me get to the real point of this post.

My brother and soon to be sister-in-law have asked me to read 1 John 3:16-24 at their wedding and I couldn’t be more thrilled.  This passage speaks so much about what marriage is truly built on: it’s the belief of Jesus Christ as our savior and sharing the perfect love given to us by Him.

Disclaimer: I’m not married.

But, I truly believe that at the core of a marriage, or any relationship for that matter, Christ’s pure and unadulterated love must exist as the foundation. It is from here that we grow stronger in our fellowship with each other.  It’s so simple really. In seeking Christ, all things grow. Without Christ at the center, all relationships are on shaky ground.

Take a minute and read through the passage below, it is my heart song going into today and I am SO excited that I get to share it with everyone attending my brother’s wedding.  They may have to take the mic away from me before I start an impromptu Bible study on this passage. Oh I would go there, I would ask people to please pull out there Bibles. But I won’t–it’s just so gosh darn amazing.

“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.

This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set out hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.

Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.”

Right now I’m sitting in my apartment at about 11:20pm, making a new pot of coffee in my usual prep for pulling all-nighters.

It’s only my third one this week.

I know, I know. Trust me, this is not my ritual norm. I’m not good at pulling all-nighters and avoid them at all cost. But with mid-terms around the corner and the first wave of papers coming due, it has just seemed inevitable.

Or is it?

The other day, I was spending some much needed time with God when He put a stumbling block in my path in the form of this verse from Exodus:

“Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during the plowing season and harvest you must rest.”

Exodus 34:21

For any college student, mid October and December are what we consider to be our “plowing seasons.” It’s a busy time and I’ll be the first to stand up and admit that during these weeks, spiritual and physical rest are very, very low on my list of priorities.

But God knows that we must rest.

Yeah, yeah, yeah…I can hear you right now, “But I’ve got this and this and this to do…” I know that’s what you’re thinking, because that’s exactly what I’m thinking. Whether we like to own up to it or not, we fail to find times of rest and sabbath in our lives because we fail to trust God with our time. We believe that if take the time to sit and rest with our Maker, that project won’t get finished or that paper turned in.

Yes–during our hectic and cyclic lives, rest is also a form of faith.  Yet, it is also a guarantee that if you don’t turn over your time to God by submitting to periods of rest, you will one day find yourself unable to do anything! Spiritually, emotionally and physically you will be overburdened and paralyzed.

I’ve found that by taking time to rest and renew myself in God’s presence–by taking the time to pray for God to strengthen and focus me, that…here’s the funny part… God gives me the strength and focus I need to be more efficient and effective with my time.

Sounds pretty good, right?

Well that’s because it is. God isn’t try to make our life more hectic by commanding rest, He’s simply looking out for his children as only a father can.

So world, I bid adieu as I go to write one of several papers for tomorrow morning, considering myself reminded of how to avoid these situations.

Outside of my family and a few close friends, I very rarely discuss politics.

I’ve found, especially in a city like Washington, that Christians who justify their political views by their faith are also the most ineffective in reaching others for Christ. For onlookers, it seems that following Christ is synonymous with following a political ideal.

Not true. SO not true.

And not to point fingers, but I see this to be especially true in the current health care debate.  I see many, many Christians and churches  justifying nationalizing health care with Jesus’ command for us to care for the poor.

I don’t  care what you’re view of health care is, I really don’t, but I say it now and I say it loud: You should never mix faith with government. You should not do it, even in the most seemingly positive and innocent venues.

Because here is the danger, as Michale Spencer puts it :

We, the church, will fall for the trap of believing in a cause more than a faith.

When the church cares more about putting an end to AIDS, to nationalizing health care, or to ending wars around the globe, and forgets God’s primary commandments to disciple believers, spread the gospel, and as individuals to serve….we lose our foundation.  We will crumble as a church.

Now I could continue on and on and on about this topic, but I refuse to write more than 250 words per blog post, and will stop right here.

But I’ll leave with with an example from the Good Book itself:

When Jesus came into Jerusalem, the Jewish crowds ran to Him crying out, “Hosanna!–Save us! Save us from the Roman Empire who unjustly enslaves us, forces us into poverty and humiliates our faith. Save us!”

But Jesus did not come to over throw the government, but He came to save their eternal being, to overthrow darkness and to bring in a new age of freedom.

So, should we help the poor and needy? Yes! At every opportunity and way.

But we should also not forget, that our concern is not just the quality of life of people here on this earth now, but of their eternal welfare as well. Their spiritual welfare.

Just another thought.

“No, I insist on paying the full price. I will not take for the Lord what is yours, or sacrifice a burnt offering that costs me nothing.”

1 Chron. 21:24

The other night I was watching the movie, End of the Spear, about four missionaries who lost their lives sharing the gospel. If you haven’t seen it, it’s a pretty good movie. In comparison to the Left Behind series, it’s STELLAR.

Sorry Left Behind peeps, love you. I really do.

But it did make me re-examine my concept of sacrfice. What should true sacrifice mean to a Christian?

It’s in the verse above: “I insist on paying the full price.”

Wow.

Take a moment and think of what that would look like in your life. What would it mean for you to pay the full price of sacrifice to the Lord? This looks a little different for everyone, but let me ask you the “Big Question.”

Would you die for Christ?

Honestly–sit back for a moment and question yourself.

It’s scary to start viewing your life in these terms, because the moment you do everything changes. The moment you kneel before the Lord and unconditionally lay down your life, you have a new perspective of your existence.

And I’ll be the first to admit, I’m not to that point yet.  The past few weeks God and I have been having quite a few heart to hearts about the meaning of sacrifice in my life. Sometimes I’m 100% on board with God, and sometimes I just put Him through to voicemail, “I’ll be heading to a small village of 1 in Wyoming God, see ya in 50.”

I mean, isn’t Wyoming sacrifice enough?

But in reality, we all can’t have the best of both worlds. We all can’t be Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus.

When God calls on us to sacrifice–whether  it’s a car ride to the airport, finances, friendships, or even our life–we have to be willing to pay the full price, being willing give our all.

And this I do know–wherever God leads you and I, it will be exactly where He wants us and when He wants us. He won’t ask anything of you that you aren’t ready to give.  This in itself is a huge comfort.  God doesn’t ask sacrifice because it’s amusing or because He has nothing else to do, He asks of us because He has incredible plans for our lives–plans to prosper and and not to harm, but to give a hope and a future.  Ya’ll should know that verse by now.

With this in mind, I’ve started praying the verse from Chronicles along with Psalm 86:11, “Teach me your way O Lord, and I will walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.”

I pray for a heart so completely devoted to Christ that I can state with no hesitation, “I insist on paying the full price. I will not sacrifice an offering that costs me nothing.”

“A time to keep silence, and a time to speak…”

Ecclesiastes 3:7

Last night I started reading Michael Sedler’s book on Godly conversations. It’s not a well known or popular book, but definently one that I need to continue in.

For leaders, or for anyone really, the question of when to speak up and when not to is an extremely a difficult one. Words have incredibly significant consequences on relationships and developing the course of actions.

And, from what I’ve observed, usually people fall into two categories: those that always speak up and those that always remain silent.

I speak on everything. If you show even a slight indication that you want my opinion or advice, I will give you an hour long thesis on the topic. (think: “You did what?!”)

I have many friends on the other hand, very intelligent and sincere leaders, who tend to remain silent in most situations. (think: *silence*)

So which one is better or more Godly? The answer is yes. I have been learning in the past few weeks the beauty of balance in speaking. There are times when my tendency to speak up is called for, but there are also times that I need to learn to remain silent.

Very situational: there’s no rubric or step by step indicator.

But, there is one true test that will always guide you to the right decision. It’s the love factor.

When you are at a point in a conversation or meeting, and you find yourself at a decision point, ask yourself what you’re motivation is.

If you are speaking up out of pride, out of your own desire to have yourself heard, than you might want to close your mouth. However, if you are speaking out of love for that person or ministry or team, than let yourself be known.

In the same way, if you remain silent because of fear or apathy, you may want to reexamine your intentions and be reminded that silence can be one of the greatest weapons of Satan when words are called for. However, if you are remaining silent out of love and understanding, then you know that you are most likely right.

It’s always a question of intention; if your words and actions stream from love than you can not be too far gone.

Just one thought on my mind today.