Faithful In Little

     It's been a while . . . I know.  Many times since my last post I have considered what to write about . . . what to share.  I've been meeting up and chatting more with friends I've known for several years.  Sometimes when everyone seems too busy to talk with each other I wonder what God is wanting to do with my friendships.  I want to be a friend who cares about another's life . . . but sometimes I don't know how to ask without being nosy.  I don't know what to ask about.  Sometimes I don't know what exactly to share about my own life.  So I give it to God in prayer.
     That sounds so easy and straightforward.  Sometimes it's not.  In fact, often I look at life and think that this or that is really quite straightforward.  But it's not.  Sometimes unexpected issues come up that no one can do anything about.  Other times I see certain people causing something to not be straightforward.  Still other times I see myself causing something to not be straightforward.
     It's frustrating.  It makes me look forward to when there will be no more trials and no more sin.  But the thing that God keeps pointing me to is a passage in James . . . a passage I memorized a while ago:

Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.  James 5:7-8 (emphasis mine)

     Be patient.  Yep, that's something I lack.  The more I realize how hard it is for me to do something -- like have patience -- the more amazed I am at God's patience with me.  I mean . . . I get impatient that I don't have patience, which is kind of ironic.  ;)  But even when I am impatient God is still patient with me.  No matter what I do . . . God's always patiently loving me.
     Jesus is patient.  The more I see His patience the more I desire to be like Him.  That reminds me of another verse:

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.  For those whom He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, in order that He might be the firstborn among many brothers.  Romans 8:28-29

     The first verse (28) above is commonly known, but it's not often quoted with the second verse.  Yeah, God works all things for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose . . . but what is that "good"?  The "good" the verse is referring to is being "conformed to the image of His Son" (vv 29).
     God calls me to be patient; to wait on His timing, to be faithful in what He has given me . . . even if what He has given me doesn't seem like a lot (see Matthew 25:14-30).  As I strive to be faithful in little, He will continue to prove HIS faithfulness in my life.
     Right now I'm doing school again, helping plan/lead a girls' discipleship group, and I've committed to memorizing 3 chapters of Acts every month for the next several months.  I don't think I'll be blogging a lot . . . but when I do I'm pretty sure I'll be sharing another testimony of God's amazing faithfulness and patience in my own life.
     As I face my own trials each and every day I remember often what is going on in Iraq.  Please, please pray our fellow brothers and sisters there who are being persecuted so much right now!  "Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body."  Romans 13:3

Now may the God of peace Himself 

sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit 

and soul and body be kept blameless at the 

coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

He who calls you is faithful; He will surely do it.

1 Thessalonians 5:23-24

Daring to Love

O LORD, who shall sojourn in Your tent?
    Who shall dwell on Your holy hill?
. . .
[He] who swears to his own hurt and does not change.
-Psalm 15:1, 4b

     Reading through Psalm fifteen several weeks ago I've especially been meditating on this part of verse four.  "Who swears to his own hurt and does not change."  Isn't that what Jesus did?  When He walked on this earth He committed to love those around Him.  He didn't love only when it was convenient but He also went out of His way to love.  Even when He was hurt by his closest friends/disciples He still loved them and He did not change.  He committed to love all of us by sacrificing Himself for our sins and becoming our Righteousness (Isaiah 61:10).  Even though we mocked Him upon that cross He still loved us.

And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”-Luke 23:34a

      Jesus dared to love, even when He hurt from it.  He committed to love even when it hurt the most and He did not turn aside.  He submitted to the Father's will even in His own anguish and bore the entire wrath of God on our behalf.  Now He commissions us to love as He loves us.

"This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you."-John 15:12

     Do I dare to love those whom God has placed in my life?  Do I commit to love family and friends even when I may hurt from it?  Do I stay true to my commitment though I may not feel like I can love them? 

     Ruth hurt a lot when she committed to love Naomi.  She was willing to become humiliated multiple times on behalf of offering Naomi a better life.  Through all of the heartache that Naomi and Ruth faced God blessed the acts of their selfless, hesed love in amazing ways.

     Hesed love: the kind of love that is loyal.

     Committing to love others isn't easy but in the power of Christ it is possible and the rewards are tremendous . . . whether gained in this life or beyond.

Give!  Give the love we have all received to those around you.  Give until it hurts, because real love hurts.  That is why you must love until it hurts.-Mother Teresa

The Adventure

     "[Gandolf] ...I am looking for someone to share in an adventure that I am arranging, and it's very difficult to find anyone."
     "[Bilbo]  I should think so - in these parts! We're plain, quiet folk and have no use for adventures. Nasty, disturbing, uncomfortable things!  Make you late for dinner!  I can't think what anybody sees in them."

     I can easily see myself having such a response as Bilbo.  "Nasty, disturbing, uncomfortable things! Make you late for dinner!"  I can't say the word,  "adventure" has always intrigued me.  But as Millie Keith's aunt Wealthy put it, "God calls us to a wild adventure, not a tea party, my dear."  For me, what this world provides as "adventure" is a poor representation of the true adventure that God calls us to.  Adventures can be "nasty, disturbing, uncomfortable things," yet what you find through the adventure is so much better.  It's not because I like getting "dirty" that I have accepted God's invitation to this adventure, it's because He is so much better than anything else.  God is simply so beautiful, so wonderful, so worth living for, that I don't mind getting a little "dirty" in this broken world in order to know and serve Christ more.  What I have gained in this world, I'm beginning to count as loss, or as dung, as Paul puts it in Philippians 3:8 (KJV).  I'm leaving what I know, to find something better.  Jesus Christ is better than any and all else.

     It's the greatest romance novel, the greatest adventure, and the greatest thriller of all times... and I have the privilege of playing even the smallest part, on such an enormous stage.  I do not choose to follow Him because it's all fun, not because it's all thrilling, not because it's all entertaining; I choose to follow Him because Jesus loved me so much, that He gave His life for me, and the least I can do is give my life to Him, for His purpose, His glory.  The fact that Christ not only saved me, but has such an amazing love for me, to invite me to serve Him... to be an ambassador of Him; such an amazing privilege, for someone so worthless as I.  How can I say "no?"

     Do not expect this blog to be all about my personal life, because, quite frankly, my life is rather boring by itself. But I have embarked on the greatest adventure of all times, and while you may see some of my journey through my writings, my purpose is to let Jesus Christ be center stage - the main character.  After all, He is what we are truly after, or at least should be after.  He is the One Thing that each one of us should desire, and I pray that I may spur you forward into this amazing, never-ending realm of knowing Him.

     But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. 

     Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.     Philippians 3:7-14 NASB