Can't Go Back

This past year we have been sitting on the edge...waiting for "a word from The Lord" as my husband would put it. While waiting, we have been obedient to keep moving forward as opportunities have come up. This obedience has certainly stretched us.  We have learned to serve in ways that are clearly beyond our " normal". Street missions and cross cultural Bible studies have proven that anything good that has happened in service was because" this all surpassing power is from God" and not us. It feels like we have stepped in the twilight zone- someplace where we feel completely out of our element and always uncomfortable. Going to the Dominican Republic to serve God made us feel even worse.  More angst. More restlessness. Even less sure of where God was calling us now. Does God create a hole in your heart so you will look to Him to fill it? Most of us would say Yes He does!

     Some of my radical Jesus loving friends laugh because they know God has been pressing this burning question into our hearts for some time now... Maybe the Lord would have us love more children on His behalf? Maybe we should seriously pursue Foster Care?   We have the space. We are not horrible parents....(no feedback right now please).   We feel confident in saying our first 2 babies turned out pretty well. Our beautiful, successful and extremely loving daughters are a testimony to God's grace in our parenting. Our boys are certainly showing us God's faithfulness to never leave or forsake us. Every day we see evidence of His grace forming their hearts as we lay down our lives for them. We know through His constant care that He will not leave us alone to our own devices... He has proven Himself faithful to give us strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow !

     Why should we do foster care? It seems like we have enough drama around here without adding to the mix.  Why put everyone at risk?  Staring into the eyes of all the beautiful children we met in the DR could have made us feel despondent and sad.  Such poverty! Seems like such little hope for their future.  But if you looked closer  you could see something completely different in the kids that were being ministered to by the church in Hato de Yaque compared to the kids outside their program.  The Light was there.  The look of being loved and recognized and cared for in the soul.  Jesus was there.  And He reminded us that He is calling all of us out, right where we are, to live a risky life so more children in this world can have Life and Life to the fullest...So our neighbors can know real Love and real Hope that doesn't disappoint.  Calling us out to speak Hope and Truth and Love into someone's life so they can really know the Lover of their Soul . It seems to us, the more we know Jesus, the harder it is to keep Him to ourselves. After you have tasted and seen that the Lord is good, how do you go back?   It reminds us of the story in John 6 when Jesus asked the Twelve if they wanted to leave Him after a particularly hard teaching.  Peter said, " Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. And we believe you are the Holy One of God".  There is no where else to go but to follow Him.  Where ever that may lead. To the Praise of His Glorious Grace!
     

Got It

We've been through the list. Weighed the bags. Prayed through months of preparation. All of it a little surreal. Yet,peace came to me through His word today.We've got everything we need. " His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness" 2Peter 1:3. It's scary to venture out and do bold things in life. It's more frightening to stay home and miss having an awesome story to tell! Can't wait to tell another story of God's goodness and faithfulness. To the praise of His glorious grace!

newyearsgoalarama

I'm not a fan of New Year's resolutions.  Maybe it's because I'm afraid to say things out loud that someone might hold me to.   I'm sure it's a pride thing. Most of us would admit we don't like failure and especially....public failure. Even writing things down in my private journal makes me a little nervous.   Being a person of my word is important to me, even if it's just in my prayer journal.   But God has been pushing me to say more out loud.  To be a person of His Word this year and to let others know what He is teaching me.
     In past years, I have set physical, financial, and spiritual goals.  Occasionally I add some crazy goal about time management and getting up earlier in the morning, but those always seem to fail!  This year the only thing that comes to my mind are my spiritual goals.  I used to crave the accomplishments of endurance sports, academic excellence and professional recognition.  For whatever reasons, those desires are completely dead.  Maybe I don't have the ability anymore. My box full of medals and t-shirts have worked their way to my basement. They seem  to remind me that those goals were great, but God wants me to store up treasures in heaven.  The reality of getting older has a way of making you rethink your priorities. I don't condemn anyone else in those endeavors, only myself because they tend to pull me away from my first Love.  My blessed physical thorns have served to ground me to my Bible instead of increasing my mileage.  And that's where God has shown me my 2013 goals.
     I was reading Colossians.  Paul's prayer for the church at Colosse was this..."And we pray in this order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." (1:10-14) Within this prayer lies my goals for this year.  I don't know how to measure their success, but God does. He said, " And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek Him (Heb. 11:6)  So boldly I claim these goals:

• Live a life worthy of His call
• Seek to please Him in every way
• Bear fruit in every good work
• Grow in the knowledge of Him
• Be strengthened by the power of the Holy Spirit to have great patience and endurance
• Joyfully give thanks for the inheritance of eternal life I have in Christ

My only action plan is to pray this daily, and wait to see how the Lord makes it true.  "May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The One who calls you is faithful and He will do it!"  It's pretty awesome to have New Year goals that don't depend on my own power or discipline. I'm not sure why I didn't think of this before!