Matthew 5:8 says, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God." Something the Lord has been teaching me about here is that we see Him most clearly when we live in purity. This past semester I lived in such apathy and was so frustrated because I lacked desire and thirst for God and His Word. In just these last two weeks that I've been here, the Lord has revealed more to me through His Word than ever and I have been so eager to hear from Him in my quiet time in the morning. This verse in Matthew opened my eyes. I have been so caught up in the distractions of the world--cell phone, TV shows, movies, facebook, competing for friendships and attention, etc. When all of those things were stripped from me here, I was forced into a very disciplined schedule and the only thing to do here is read my Bible and talk about God all day haha!! We get up early in the morning, have strict meal times, lots of sunshine and physical activity, and lots of hard work. Although the discipline has been tough, it has grown my intimacy with the Lord incredibly. So many impure and worldly distractions have been removed from my life and through that I have been freed to seek the Lord in purity and SEE Him clearly! His ways are pure and there is FREEDOM in a life of discipline! Who knew?? :) 2 Corinthians 3:17 says, "...where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is FREEDOM." The Lord is giving me a taste of that here and it is wonderful.
We get our first campers on Monday!! My next night off is Friday (a week from tomorrow) so my next update will be full of new stories and experiences I'm sure!! Please pray for patience and perseverance as I have no clue what it's going to be like! I'm nervous but very excited! God is good :)
Thank you all for your prayers!!
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Sunday, May 27, 2012
Sunday, May 27th
Another night off! Don't have time to write a long update tonight but things are going well!! I'm so grateful for the Lord's faithfulness to me and the peace He has placed upon my heart day in and day out. Next night of is Thursday!! Then we have our first CAMPERS on Sunday!! Please pray for physical stamina and perseverance in my spirit! And for the other staff here! We're going to have 10,000 campers coming through here this summer--pray that they would see and experience our great God!
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Obedience.
Hello Everyone!! The Lord is working in Texas! The last 5 or 6 days have been rough for me...God is completely stretching me by pulling me out of my comfort zone and it's been hard! I really struggled with letting go of my comfort zone back home (my communication to everything was cut off so abruptly) and I've been forced to just be HERE and jump into a completely different world. Earlier on I felt forgotten by the Lord and wasn't trusting His love and His watch and care over me. Then He graciously led me to Ezekiel :) As I read the first two or three chapters, the Lord started to speak to me saying, "I have you here and I know what I'm doing. All you need to do is OBEY--the results are not up to you." There is so much I want to write and say but I have to turn in my electronics :) It's a very simple lifestyle here but unbelievably pure and refreshing. Please pray for my heart to be open and loving towards this place! Also, pray that I would know and choose to live in GRACE so that I can share the Gospel of GRACE to my campers when they come in 2 weeks!! God is good :)
My next time off is Sunday at 5pm! Talk to you then :)
My next time off is Sunday at 5pm! Talk to you then :)
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Heading out!
Hey Everyone! I'm going to try to keep updates on my summer in Texas on this blog. I really have no idea how much I'll be able to write but I'm going to try! I'm flying out from the Roanoke airport at 7am tomorrow morning--just finishing up packing and everything tonight!
As I've been preparing to head out, I'm so aware of how spiritually dry I have been lately. I really wanted to be leaving for Texas having spent oodles of time with the Lord, feeling strongly connected to Him and ready to minister! But I feel pretty exhausted, burned out, and empty. On top of that, I got the stomach bug last night and today...so I'm feeling pretty lousy! Despite all of that, the Lord has given me peace.
The Lord has graciously revealed to me through conversations with precious people over the last few days that I have had a very selfish mentality. If I am empty, then there is more room for Him to work. Praise Him for that! Here are some reflections I had from reading in Esther this past weekend...
As I've been preparing to head out, I'm so aware of how spiritually dry I have been lately. I really wanted to be leaving for Texas having spent oodles of time with the Lord, feeling strongly connected to Him and ready to minister! But I feel pretty exhausted, burned out, and empty. On top of that, I got the stomach bug last night and today...so I'm feeling pretty lousy! Despite all of that, the Lord has given me peace.
The Lord has graciously revealed to me through conversations with precious people over the last few days that I have had a very selfish mentality. If I am empty, then there is more room for Him to work. Praise Him for that! Here are some reflections I had from reading in Esther this past weekend...
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
For such a time as this...
I was reading Esther this past weekend, and came upon the well-known verse, "For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father's family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?" (Esther 4:14)
The more I think about this verse, I realize that it means more than "God has you in a specific place for a specific reason". While this is COMPLETELY true, I have realized that that's not all there is. My Bible has a summary in the beginning of each book and the one for Esther says,
"Silence. Utter, complete silence. We read the pages of Scripture expecting to hear God's voice, but when we turn to the book of Esther, we find only silence. Nowethere in these pages is God's name mentioned. No direct words. No prophesies. No prayers. The nation of Israel was in exile, living in subjection to a pagan king. God was silent, but He was not absent.
It is there, in heaven's stillness, that a young woman enters the scene. Esther is a Jew, but she finds herself upon the stage of the Persian court with all its foreign customs and intrigues. And God has a purpose for her, right where she is. As Esther's story unfolds, watch for God's providence. You will not see His hand, but you can see His fingerprints all over the situation."
I've been going through a phase in my spiritual life and I feel like the Lord has been somewhat silent--I haven't felt His presence, I haven't heard Him clearly, and I haven't seen Him working in huge ways. I have been so frustrated and for this reason, the last sentence of that summary stood out to me. I decided to read through Esther and look for all of God's fingerprints within it.
The fingerprints that were the most obvious to me were the ones covering Esther's life. "Mordecai had a cousin named Hadassah, whom he had brought up because she had neither father nor mother. This girl, who was also known as Esther, was lovely in form and features, and Mordecai had taken her as his own daughter when her father and mother died." (Esther 2:7) God created Esther's beauty. He created her with unique beauty that would enthrall the king and allow her to win his favor over every other beautiful girl in the kingdom. He also created her in such a way that she didn't look like a Jew. Maybe I'm reading into it too much, but the fact that she was able to hide her identity as a Jew meant that she did not have strong and noticeable Jewish characteristics. God knew the purpose He had for her and created her to fit that purpose. To think that He does that for each of our lives! Psalm 139 says, "My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, Your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be." (Psalm 139:15-16)
Now that I have started to see God's fingerprints on Esther's story, I have started to see the choices that Esther made in response to the life she was given. Going back to Esther 4:14, the first part of the verse, "...relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place..." has started to stand out to me. Esther was placed in her position as queen for a purpose, and looking back, we can clearly see what that purpose was. However, I wonder if it was as clear to Esther then as it is to us now. In making her decision to go to the king, her sacrifice was huge, and she could have played it safe. It's interesting that Mordecai was completely confident that God would save the Jews another way. God didn't need Esther to decide to face the king. He graciously offered her an opportunity to take part in His plan. She chose to trust Him and the benefit was hers. She was blessed because of what she did.
This has convicted me in my spiritual life. How many times do I face opportunities in my life for which I am uniquely created? How many times do I refuse the Holy Spirit and miss out on the blessed life that comes by living a life of trusting Him? I want to choose His way over mine--He brings PEACE in my life and that peace makes all the difference in the world to me.
The more I think about this verse, I realize that it means more than "God has you in a specific place for a specific reason". While this is COMPLETELY true, I have realized that that's not all there is. My Bible has a summary in the beginning of each book and the one for Esther says,
"Silence. Utter, complete silence. We read the pages of Scripture expecting to hear God's voice, but when we turn to the book of Esther, we find only silence. Nowethere in these pages is God's name mentioned. No direct words. No prophesies. No prayers. The nation of Israel was in exile, living in subjection to a pagan king. God was silent, but He was not absent.
It is there, in heaven's stillness, that a young woman enters the scene. Esther is a Jew, but she finds herself upon the stage of the Persian court with all its foreign customs and intrigues. And God has a purpose for her, right where she is. As Esther's story unfolds, watch for God's providence. You will not see His hand, but you can see His fingerprints all over the situation."
I've been going through a phase in my spiritual life and I feel like the Lord has been somewhat silent--I haven't felt His presence, I haven't heard Him clearly, and I haven't seen Him working in huge ways. I have been so frustrated and for this reason, the last sentence of that summary stood out to me. I decided to read through Esther and look for all of God's fingerprints within it.
The fingerprints that were the most obvious to me were the ones covering Esther's life. "Mordecai had a cousin named Hadassah, whom he had brought up because she had neither father nor mother. This girl, who was also known as Esther, was lovely in form and features, and Mordecai had taken her as his own daughter when her father and mother died." (Esther 2:7) God created Esther's beauty. He created her with unique beauty that would enthrall the king and allow her to win his favor over every other beautiful girl in the kingdom. He also created her in such a way that she didn't look like a Jew. Maybe I'm reading into it too much, but the fact that she was able to hide her identity as a Jew meant that she did not have strong and noticeable Jewish characteristics. God knew the purpose He had for her and created her to fit that purpose. To think that He does that for each of our lives! Psalm 139 says, "My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, Your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be." (Psalm 139:15-16)
Now that I have started to see God's fingerprints on Esther's story, I have started to see the choices that Esther made in response to the life she was given. Going back to Esther 4:14, the first part of the verse, "...relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place..." has started to stand out to me. Esther was placed in her position as queen for a purpose, and looking back, we can clearly see what that purpose was. However, I wonder if it was as clear to Esther then as it is to us now. In making her decision to go to the king, her sacrifice was huge, and she could have played it safe. It's interesting that Mordecai was completely confident that God would save the Jews another way. God didn't need Esther to decide to face the king. He graciously offered her an opportunity to take part in His plan. She chose to trust Him and the benefit was hers. She was blessed because of what she did.
This has convicted me in my spiritual life. How many times do I face opportunities in my life for which I am uniquely created? How many times do I refuse the Holy Spirit and miss out on the blessed life that comes by living a life of trusting Him? I want to choose His way over mine--He brings PEACE in my life and that peace makes all the difference in the world to me.
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