How He loves us.

Sometime a song really grabs ahold of your heart and the words which reflect God's truth, and the melody, and where you are in a season of life  come together in a place that meets your need in a very special way. This song has become one of my favorites and when I found it paired up with this presentation I knew that God could use it in a powerful way in the lives of many people, as He did in mine. I don't think, in this critical, judgmental,  works based society that I can ever hear enough of how much He loves me. And how much is that you ask? Probably the most often quoted verse in the bible tells us:

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

If have any doubt that He loves you, read that verse and put your name in place of "the world".We are ALL sinners. Our sin deserves death, yet He died to pay the death penalty for us. If that isn't love I don't know what is. Now watch and pray that you would know His love.

Easter Cardboard Testimonies from saraserves on GodTube.

John 6:60-66  "Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this said, “This is a difficult statement; who can listen to it?” 61 But Jesus, conscious that His disciples grumbled at this, said to them, “Does this cause you to stumble? 62 What then if you see the Son of Man ascending to where He was before? 63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. 64 But there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who it was that would betray Him. 65 And He was saying, “For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father.” 66 As a result of this many of 

His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore."

Hard words; a difficult statement, usually that brings to mind someone who hears devastating news, things you definitely want to cover your ears for. Sickness, death, financial stress can run us ragged if we allow it. No doubt there will be endless trials in our lives, some are huge mountains of despair, some are made up of the everyday drudgery that can overtake us IF we don’t fix our eyes on Jesus. Sometimes though it is easier said then done.

 In one of my favorite books, “The Red Sea Rules”, the author says the following:

 “Our whole perspective changes when finding ourselves in a hard place, we realize that the Lord has either placed us there or allowed us to be there, maybe for reasons only known to Him.”

 So, if He has placed me there, surely He has prepared it for me. Instead of grumbling I should be filled with gratitude that He has allowed me to be where He wants me. My hard place might not be your hard place. We might even look at each other hard places and want to trade!

 As I have taught the High School Girls these past few weeks we have been studying Luke 9:23.

"And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. 

And all of a sudden I realized He had me in a real hard place facing a difficult statement. DENY himself. Been there, done that I thought. I kept hearing the words though….”deny….deny…..deny himself”. OK God, you are scaring me. Haven’t I given up enough? No. No? An unmistakable voice asked me if I was really willing to follow Him. Was I ready to deny my selfish interests, ( all of which were justifiable of course--- after all I deserve to feel the way I do; read- bitterness, unkindness, envy, hard heartedness) in order to pursue Him? Then it hit me, the girls in my class hear it every week…..every choice we make brings us either a step closer to or farther from God. He is testing me. The choice is up to me. To move towards Him, to follow Him, means to deny myself. But in reality what I deny are the things He doesn’t want in my life anyway. Every little step of obedience, every time I say no to me and yes to Him I get a little closer, not to a perfect life but to the perfect One.

 I love analogies and this has got me thinking of the classic monkey with his hand stuck in the jar.

“A small jar is placed at the base of a tree with nuts or other items which may attract the monkey’s curiosity. The opening of the jar allows the monkey to place his hand in, but when he tries to withdraw it, he is unable to do so without letting go of the contents of the jar. Believe it or not, some monkeys will stay there with their hand in the jar until the hunter comes back to trap them! They are trapped because they are unwilling to let go of something they are doing which is working against them.” 

In the same way I can let my “hand” fill up with the things of the world-oh they don’t have to even be material things; they can be feelings and emotions that are “deceitfully wicked” . And I don’t want to let go. But God wants me to unclench my fist and let Him place in it just the right things. How I want to always choose, like Mary in Luke 10:42

  “but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, 

which shall not be taken away from her.”

My Ukraine mission trip...in 5 minutes!

Below is the text of my "mission report" as presented to the people of Community Bible Church on June 24, 2012.

Well, I am really excited to share with you this morning and I hope that you will get excited also to see the work that God is doing in Ukraine. These past months as we planned and prayed God has shown me that missions is not a word that should spark a feeling of dread because someone might ask you to give, or worse yet to go. Missions is not something that some Christians are called to be part of and some are not. Missions is not about the place as much as it is about the people. But it is not even as much about the people as it is about an incredibly holy, awesome God who totally and completely overwhelms us with his greatness; who gives us the privilege to tell of His glory among the nations and of His wonderful deeds among the peoples. Well, as you know the nation we are talking about today is Ukraine and the peoples are, if I might borrow a line from Pastor Carl, anything that breathes! Our theme this year was to be “adventurously expectant “ and that little phrase turned out to be prophetic. From the time we left Beaufort, it was quite clear that it wasn’t about our itinerary at all, but about his plans. We thought it was about a broken plane and missed flights, but it was about 2 team members who because of the delay got to share Christ with a broken and hurting woman in the airport. I was one of 12 people that made up the bible camp team. We stayed in the Joshua House, which is right next door to the church in Litin. Pasha, Nastia and little Masha warmly greeted us when we arrived.

Would you pray for them as they are hoping to become the first set of house parents at the Joshua House. And if hosting us, which included 7 teenage girls was a test for them, then they passed with flying colors. As we looked forward to the first day of camp I was a bit concerned because there were so many unknowns. We had no idea if we would have any kids because we thought school was out for the year but it was still in session. We couldn’t make a schedule, assign rooms, figure out crafts or games until we knew not only how many kids but how old they were. We looked out the window at 8:00 and there were already kids coming-and camp didn’t start til nine! I believe the first day we had 40 or so. When we found out were having two camps every day the teens from the orphanage in Vinnitsa and from the Litin church showed up to help. We had kids from babies to teens come to camp. Did I mention we had no nursery? But, as you can we had Mr. Frederick who lovingly took over nursery duties.

We didn’t have a copier, a sound system, air conditioning or cold drinks. There were days that lights didn’t work, translators were late, the worship team didn’t arrive but over and over God was faithful to provide what or who we needed exactly when we needed it. Our curriculum for the camp was based on the parable of the sower. It was a perfect topic for a room full of rambunctious boys who had grown up helping their dads and granddads in their gardens because they knew all about good soil. I am so amazed to think that God knew that on that day in that room that one boy was going to hear that parable and the message of the gospel and be able to understand his need for Christ and be saved.

And how can you not fall in love with the precious little girls.

If the success of camp was measured in hugs and smiles then it was indeed a great success! This picture is of a young girl named Janna, who for being 14 has had more sorrow and heartache then lots of us do in a lifetime. Every time we were at the church she was there. I don’t know exactly when, but some time during the week God turned that sorrow into joy as she became one of His.

There is story after story that we can all tell of God moving and working in so many ways. Like Pasha who came to camp as a quiet teenager some five or six years ago; and now with his wife, both who have huge servants hearts are passionate to share the love of Christ with others. I started out by talking about what I thought missions was not, and a list of things we didn’t have. But what I learned right away is that it is not about the things we had or didn’t have, because sometimes God has to take away all the stuff, even when it is good stuff like lights, in order for us to focus on him, to depend completely on him and to follow him without questioning. I read this quote by Daniel Webster and it just struck me. He said, “The greatest thought that has ever entered my mind is that one day I will have to stand before a holy God and give an account of my life.” And when it comes to missions, to the opportunities we have to reach the lost all over the world, did I close my fist when I should have given, did I cover my ears when he said go? Was I too busy when he said pray? You and I enjoy so many resources, as Christians we have been entrusted with the most precious gift of all –the gospel. What a privilege and an honor to be part of the team this year, to be able to bring the gospel to the nations for his glory.