Month: June 2011

Forewarning: This post is going to be a little on the longer side…the Lord is just too good for a short post today!! =)

So, today was a good day. It was one of those days where you just wake up and know the Lord is going to move and work. That became true very quickly.

A little recap – I woke up and got ready in record time with spare time to spend in the Word. It was so refreshing to wake up and unexpectedly have extra time. The Lord provides. I left for work craving more time with Him. I prayed that the Lord would give me the opportunity to spend more time with Him throughout the day. During lunch, I ate with my mom. She got to work late so ate lunch quickly so she could clock in and get to work to start her day. Thus, I got an extra 30 minutes to spend in prayer and reading through some Psalms. Then, I even got to share a couple of those verses with friends (via twitter – ps. I’ve fallen in love with Twitter. Never thought I’d see the day. I swore against it for a while). Then, at about 2:30-3:00 someone walks into ResLife. I look up and my good friend Ashley walks through the door. Such a sweet, sweet surprise.

After work ended, I go to Starbucks because I have about an hour and a half before I have to go tutor one of my youth girls. I walk in, order my usual [Grande Iced Caramel Macchiato Upside Down Light Ice – just in case anyone wants to ever get me one randomly – totally kidding 😉 ]. I start to walk to the counter to wait for my drink and I hear some say “Sarah!!” I look up and my friend Jessica is there from church. She ended up having a half an hour or so to talk before she had to leave so we went and sat at a table. It was such a good and encouraging conversation. The Lord is just teaching us both similar things – how to submit to his will no matter how uncomfortable or out of our plans that is. The Lord knew we both needed that conversation. -Thank you, Lord, for bringing us both to Starbucks today!-

She had to leave. As I was walking back to my table to start journaling and spending time with just me and the Lord, what I had wanted to do for the majority of the day, this man who was sitting next to us pipes in and tells me that he overheard our conversation and that he thought it was awesome that we both have traveled so much at such a young age (that is totally true- the Lord has totally provided and blessed me with those opportunites, he is good!!). He went on to explain that he was a believer and that he had gone to Harvest for a long time and is now at an Eastern Orthodox church. He said that listening to our conversation, and how we were so committed and driven by our faith in Christ, made him want to get back to his faith and be more serious about the God he claimed to serve. I encouraged him to keep seeking out the truth of the God of the Bible and to filter all things by the truth of the Word and the Gospel message! So awesome to see how the Lord works….he is so faithful to provide for everyone always. Sometimes we need to be more open and aware of the things he is doing in our lives. I have the tendency to just try to fix everything and plan everything on my own that I lose sight of what he is doing and how he is working in my life. Or so driven on my own desires and plan of spending my own one on one time with the Lord when he had encouraging conversations for me planned!! I am thankful that he opened my eyes to them and allowed me to have the time to have those!

I left after that conversation, went to go tutor, got to spend some good quality time doing ALGEBRA!!! Secretly, I have a love for that subject. I know I am a nerd. I am okay with that. I had braces. I now have glasses. And I love slope intercept form. Don’t judge. =) I used to want to be an algebra teacher until I found out I had to do all other kinds of math in order to teach just that subject. At least I still get opportunities to help people in it. I seriously really really enjoy it. I would do math all day if that was okay. Anyways, that was over, I went to youth group and Walter taught because Brandon is in the Philippines. He spoke on exactly what I needed to hear and be reminded of. He spoke of how we need to be unified in Christ as the church and how that love and unity should define us because Christ gave up his life to do so. One section he taught on highlighted Philippians 2. This is what I have been studying in my times with the Lord the last 2 weeks. It was so awesome to have studied that and been able to see the ties from the front of the chapter to the back. The Lord has been so faithful to provide me with wisdom and understanding in those times with him. He has illuminated so much.

The theme that the Lord showed me this week is that in love and service to others (believers and unbelievers) needs to be characterized by humility. Christ, by coming to this earth and dying on the cross, humbled himself by taking on human form when he was the omnipotent God, took on all of our sins so we could be guilt and blemish free. AMAZING! Then later on in the chapter, Paul is talking about his own life and how he pours himself out as a drink offering to sacrifice himself so that others might be strengthened in their faith (verse 17). Also, AMAZING! This is what we need to do as believers. In verses three to eight, it talks about how the we are to do nothing out of selfishness, basically, and how we are to follow the example of Christ and lay down our lives for others, even to the point of death on a cross. This example is phenomenal and mind-blowing!

He points out in vv 14-16 how we are to not complain or question anything that happens in our lives. This goes back to the conversation that I had with Jessica. Part of submitting to the Lord’s will is accepting with joy all that the Lord has for us no matter the consequences in the world or the change of our own plans for our lives. It says to do everything without questioning. We do this because if we were to question it that would show that we don’t trust the Lord. When we trust the Lord, we end up shining as lights in a crooked and twisted generation (vv. 15).

Lastly, it says that we are to hold fast to the Word of Life. SO CRUCIAL!! If we do all those things, but don’t hold fast to the word of life, we miss the point. We are doing all of those things for the wrong reasons and wrong motives. Everything we do – living selflessly and loving others in humility – has to be driven by Christ’s grace and mercy in our lives. We must and have to be fueled by the gospel, otherwise all of this work is going to fail. Works that are driven by legalism and our own power are worthless (Ephesians 2).

I had my own plan for the day, how I wanted it to go, how I wanted to spend my time, and the Lord totally changed that around. He made it so much better! I tweeted earlier that I was “excited for a new day… Looking forward to all the twists and turns this life brings and all Lord has to teach me through the process!!” He sure did throw in some twists and turns and taught me so much through that process. The Lord is good! He ALWAYS provides!!!!!

 

So, more recently at work I have been going through old files for students who lived on campus. It is pretty interesting. In the old applications, students included pictures of themselves in the application – Oh, how the styles have changed. It is not the most entertaining task I have done, but it is cool to see where people before me have lived.

This really got me thinking about life and how soon, in less than a year, I will be one of those old files that the next receptionist will go through, trash all the old condition reports, put my name on a sheet of paper, and shove it in some file in the store room not to be looked at again for years.

How did the last 4 years of my life fly by so quickly? And even more, what have I done here at CBU that will go on past a file that will soon be replaced with the next freshman girl?

It made me really excited for this next year. I don’t want to just be a mediocre RA again. I don’t want to be just another student in the CBS major that just does enough work to get me an “A.” I don’t want to be just another college friend who was here today and gone tomorrow after graduation. Life is completely and utterly fleeting. Soon, my life will end, and I will be just a speck of dust that the next generation will walk on. Life is interesting that way.

I am still really pondering and brainstorming this idea. But, I need to find my identity solely in Christ since soon life will end and I will know nothing but Him.

How can we live for today to impact tomorrow? How can we make an impact on this time in History? How can our life not just leave with us when we die, but travel past the grave? How do we live in the knowledge that Christ is all we need and our only identity since our lives are fleeting?

More recently, as in the last 3 months or so, I have been going through quite the trial. This simply has to do with circumstances changing, people moving out of my life onto new adventures, a new schedule, the Lord completely breaking me and revealing the deep and utter sin that I still live in even though I have been saved by His grace, etc. The Lord has used the last couple of months in a huge way to sanctify me (make me more like him – holy…no where near where He is, but he is using the events to inch me closer and closer). I was up late last night packing, making fabric flowers, doing laundry, and other such tasks that needed to get done before leaving for my cousins wedding today. I turned on Kari Jobe. I went through a spurt of time where she was ALL I listened to. I got tired of her for a long time and we had to take a break…that break ended last night. Anyways, I was listening to this song and this song with the last couple of months in the forefront of my mind and realizing a little bit more of how the Lord has revealed Himself to me in the last 4 months, the last year, the last 2 years, for my whole life.

And this is it: Jesus is my lover. To those who don’t know the Lord that sounds ludicrous. But, oh boy, to those of us who know the Lord, that is one of the most amazing qualities about Him. And for so long, I didn’t view Him that way.

I suppose that is because for so long I was fighting with the Lord. Fighting with Him for my own will to come about. Fighting with Him to make sure that everything in my life went without a hitch. If Plan A did not happen, I had Plan B following close behind. I placed God in a box and compartmentalized him. I decided that what I wanted was paramount and anything else was not good. God was only there to dictate the rules and punish me when I didn’t follow them.

I am an idiot. Simply, an idiot.

If that is the only view of God I have, I am completely and utterly missing the point. Why in the world would God send His one and only Son to die for the sins of those who rejected Him just to make sure they were following the rules and to discipline them when they broke them? That would not make any sense. If that was His plan, the world would have been destroyed shortly after creating it. God knows what is best. And he desires to pursue us and desires to have a relationship built on love.

So as I sat making fabric flowers, packing my bag for this weekends festivities, and doing laundry, I started reflecting on the Lord’s pursuit of me for the entirety of my life and specifically in the last year. The Lord has pursued me wholeheartedly. He has sought me out to show me His love and longs to delight in me. I have rejected Him over and over again, yet he stands there with the same amount of grace and love with His arms outstretched, scars in His hands and feet. Wow.

For some reason, for the 21 years that I have been living on this earth and in a Christian home, I have never read this passage. Well, that is not entirely true, I have read it, but I just have always skipped right over it.

That was a mistake. This passage has such depth and substance to it. As I begin my weekly study on this, I am so excited and thrilled to see what the Lord opens up in this passage in my life and in my heart. If any of you blog readers out there would like to join me in the study, here are the daily questions to ask for the next five days. (Thank you to Maximize Your Mornings at inspiredtoaction.com for this helpful tool)

Day 1: Read the passage. Jot down any questions or general observations you have about the passage. Read the passage again.
Day 2: Read the passage three times, each time looking for different TRUTHS and listing your observations.

• What does this passage teach about God?
• What does this passage teach about Paul? 
• What can I learn about my identity in Christ?

Day 3: Read the passage again, this time looking for and listing any PROMISES you find. If the promise is conditional, record the conditions.
Day 4: Read the passage and record any COMMANDS you find. Read the passage again, this time record anything you learn from the examples of others.
Day 5:  Journal through these questions:

• How does my view of God line up with this passage’s teaching about God?
• What is the Lord leading me to DO as a result of this passage? 
• Pray and ask the Holy Spirit to do the work in your heart so that you may walk in obedience to this passage.

~~~
Here are the corresponding dates. Some have already passed, but ENJOY!
May 16-20: Phil 1:1-11 Paul’s heart for God’s people
May 23-27: Phil 1:12-18 God’s purpose in Paul’s imprisonment
May 30-June 3: Phil 1:19-26 Paul’s desires: God’s people and God’s presence
June 6-10: Phil 1:27-30 God’s gospel-purpose for us
June 13-17: Phil 2:1-11 Paul’s charge towards unity through the example of Christ
June 20-24: Phil 2:12-18 Paul’s charge to Word-centered obedience
June 27-July 1: Phil 2:19-30 Servants of the gospel (examples to follow)
July 4- 8: Phil 3:1-11 The surpassing worth of Christ, our righteousness
July 11-15: Phil 3:12-21 Paul’s example: Press on toward the call of Christ
July 18-22: Phil 4:1-9 Paul’s plea: Pursue the peace of God
July 25-29: Phil 4:10-23 Paul’s contentment in God’s provision
August 1-5: Pick your own passage.
August 8-12: Pick your own passage.

“Live simply in order that others might simply live.” -My “friend” Lindsay at Passionate Homemaking =)

This topic keeps coming up over and over again in my life. Ask anyone in my family and they will tell you that I am probably one of THE worst money managers in the whole entire universe…that is not an understatement. This is quite interesting because I am a very organized person and love to be organized. For some reason, this has not caught on in my money/banking world. After realizing how stupid and foolish that is, I’ve decided to make the change. A change away from making foolish decisions to making wise, God-honoring decisions.

It’s not like I spend money on lofty things like a new car or on lots of excessive things, I just don’t think before I spend. So, for example, I spend a day with friends and go out to eat, go get ice cream, go to a movie, and don’t record any of that or limit myself in any way. Before I know it *poof* the money has completely disappeared from my bank account never to be seen again.

It is quite unfortunate. One summer, I interned at a church and someone in the church gave us a pretty big chunk of cash as a gift for our service and I don’t even remember where that money went. One day it was there, and the next it was gone. There was (and is) a great, big, giant hole in my pocket. This needs to stop.

One of the huge reasons that I feel compelled to start spending my money wiser is because for one, I know soon a rainy day will come and I will NEED a cushion and something to keep me afloat. And two, I know that I have been given much so that I can give. I have been blessed with a job and all I do is spend that money on myself and any activity that I want to do, never once thinking about the other people who are less fortunate around me – who do not have a job, or have a job that pays very little, or who came across a series of unfortunate events, or or or. Simply, I have been blessed with much, so I need to bless others with much.

This is not only true for me financially, but it is true for me in all of my life as well. Me, a wretched, sinful person completely dead in my sin was given life despite everything I deserved. I deserve to go to Hell for eternity. I deserve to suffer eternally for all the mistakes and wrong doings I have done. I deserve nothing good. BUT I serve a great and merciful God. For example, Ephesians 2 tells us in verses 1-10 that simply, we deserve death, but God gives us life…now walk in that GRACE:

“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who is now at work in the sons of disobedience-among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ-by grace you have been saved-and raised us up with Him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages, he might be able to show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. This is not your own doing, it is a gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

This grace that we have been given should compel us to not only be completely satisfied in Him and Him alone, but it should compel us to want to share this amazing, perfect gift with others. There should be SUCH a joy within us to go to all the nations to make His great name known. This should happen. I am so completely and utterly guilty of it not. Why does it not?

Well, we (I) get trapped in the world, especially in America, of ME, MYSELF, AND I. It is all about me and what I can do to please myself. This is a deep, dark, black hole. And, mind you, it is only escapable through the cross. It is only escapable when you realize that Christ is the only way out of death and into life, when you realize He is the only solution to ending sin, when you realize that He is the only solution to correcting the anger, hatred, bitterness, selfishness, and sorrow. He is the ONLY one who can bring joy despite painful circumstances. He is the only one who can bring light to this dark world. He is our ONLY hope.

Questions to ask yourself: In what ways can I rearrange my budget (Or even make a budget…like I have to do) in order to spend under my means and provide for those who cannot provide for themselves? In what ways has the gospel changed my life and how do I go about sharing that GOOD NEWS with others? How can I allow the gospel to shape and form my life today? How do I “live simply in order that others might simply live”?

To Be Continued… =)