La Republica Dominicana

A song we sang all week was “Santo, Santo, Santo, yo quiero ver te” or “Holy, Holy, Holy, I want to see you.” While I have never actually thought about what it means to see God, or for the eyes of my heart to be opened, this was a prayer that God really answered while in the RD. Time and time again I saw hearts break and change right before my eyes.

Ruth, a girl about my age, came up to me and asked for help with her English homework in an ice cream parlor. I helped her and then proceeded to share the gospel with her. (Everyone in the country pretty much believed in God and Jesus, but had no understanding of grace.) So she believed that the Bible was true, so I asked her, "If you died today, would you go to heaven or hell?" She replied, “I would for sure go to hell. There is no way that a God so perfect and big could ever love a sinner like me.” This blew my mind. She had such an accurate understanding of who God is and who we are. We read a tract together and I explained that no matter how good or bad we are has no bearings on if we get to heaven or not -- it is only by the grace of God. It was so neat to watch this girl go from speaking confidently and loud, to quiet and cracky and burst into tears at the realization that God loved her and wanted a relationship with her. It is so sweet that God is the same in the US, the RD, China, and everywhere else in the world, even when cultures, etc. are so different.

I am so thankful I was able to spend my spring break in the Dominican Republic and see the Lord do incredibly crazy things! My understanding of who God is -- perfect, holy, AWESOME, good, BIG -- was like a full cup before I left in comparison to the ocean of huge waves that keep smacking me in the face with the goodness of God. While I am overwhelmed by the love and greatness of God, I know my understanding is still so little as to how amazing our God really is.

Suffering is a PRIVILEGE!

"You have been granted the privilege not only of believing in Christ but also of suffering for Him" (Phil 1:29 NEB).

"For the Lord who loves her suffered and wants her to fellowship with Himself. The joy of thus knowing Him comes not in spite of but because of suffering, just as resurrection comes out of death. I have a Savior because I am a sinner, and beauty is given the child of God in exchange for ashes.

We want to avoid suffering, death, sin, ashes. But we live in a world crushed and broken and torn, a world God Himself visited to redeem. We receive his poured-out life, and being allowed the high privilege of suffering with Him, may then pour ourselves out for others." -- Elisabeth Elliot

Jeremiah (my favorite ever) writes in chapter 20 verses 7-9:

I am ridiculed all day long; everyone mocks me… So the word of the Lord has brought me insult and reproach all day long. But if I say, “I will not mention him or speak any more in his name His word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot.

While Jeremiah suffered for God, he could not hold the Word of the Lord in. Is this what our lives look like? Can we not contain the love and truth of Christ?

Sing to the Lord! Give praise to the Lord! He rescues the life of the needy from the hands of the wicked. Jeremiah 20:13

Misrepresenting Jesus.

"We are not responsible for outsiders' decisions, but we are accountable when our actions and attitudes--misrepresenting a holy, just and loving God--have pushed outsiders away." UnChristian

LOVE

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket- safe, dark, motionless, airless—it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.”

— C.S. Lewis"

Make War

James Chapter 1 - Paul hits it hard here.

1:19 My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.

1:21 Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.

1:22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.

1:26-27If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

Oh, and chapter 4 verse 7&8 - Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you.

Now one of my favorite songs from one of my favorite artists :)

Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. Psalm 63:3 - GOD'S LOVE IS BETTER THAN LIFE!!!!! whoaaa

What does my symphony sound like?

Part of a blog by James Barnett:

Then I started thinking about the implications of this unveiled pursuit. Sure it has it’s luster and seems great, but perhaps the more intriguing philosophy is that “Spoken love is like a symphony playing in the desert.” Isn’t this the realchallenge? The challenge to speak love, create love, & show love when it is not acknowledged? Not even heard?

I can’t help but think back to all the times in history when extremists for love were killed because of their zealous nature for justice. Ask Martin Luther King Jr. if the citizens of Memphis liked his symphony. Ask Mother Teresa if the world truly understood the God behind her motivation. Ask Stephen the apostle, who was stoned to death, if the people of Jerusalem dug the song he was singing.

Folks, I’m not so sure our symphony is a popular one. It won’t end up on the billboard top ten and it won’t be played on a stage in Central Park. It will be a lullaby sung within the hearts of the poor. It will be cried out by those who hunger and thirst for what is right. No, it may not be a popular song, but it will be a good one.

The Lord, our Shepherd.

I am so thankful that we can find so much comfort and restoration in the Lord. He is soo good!

Ezekial 34: 11-34

¹¹ “‘For this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. ¹² As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness. ¹³ I will bring them out from the nations and gather them from the countries, and I will bring them into their own land. I will pasture them on the mountains of Israel, in the ravines and in all the settlements in the land. ¹⁴ I will tend them in a good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel will be their grazing land. There they will lie down in good grazing land, and there they will feed in a rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. ¹⁵ I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down, declares the Sovereign LORD. ¹⁶I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy. I will shepherd the flock with justice.

¹⁷ “‘As for you, my flock, this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I will judge between one sheep and another, and between rams and goats. ¹⁸ Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture? Must you also trample the rest of your pasture with your feet? Is it not enough for you to drink clear water? Must you also muddy the rest with your feet? ¹⁹ Must my flock feed on what you have trampled and drink what you have muddied with your feet?

²⁰ “‘Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says to them: See, I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. ²¹ Because you shove with flank and shoulder, butting all the weak sheep with your horns until you have driven them away, ²² I will save my flock, and they will no longer be plundered. I will judge between one sheep and another.²³ I will place over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he will tend them; he will tend them and be their shepherd. ²⁴ I the LORD will be their God, and my servant David will be prince among them. I the LORD have spoken.

²⁵ “‘I will make a covenant of peace with them and rid the land of savage beasts so that they may live in the wilderness and sleep in the forests in safety. ²⁶ I will make them and the places surrounding my hill a blessing.^{a]" style="font-size: 0.75em; line-height: 0.5em; ">[a]} I will send down showers in season; there will be showers of blessing. ²⁷ The trees will yield their fruit and the ground will yield its crops; the people will be secure in their land. They will know that I am the LORD, when I break the bars of their yoke and rescue them from the hands of those who enslaved them. ²⁸ They will no longer be plundered by the nations, nor will wild animals devour them. They will live in safety, and no one will make them afraid. ²⁹ I will provide for them a land renowned for its crops, and they will no longer be victims of famine in the land or bear the scorn of the nations. ³⁰ Then they will know that I, the LORD their God, am with them and that they, the Israelites, are my people, declares the Sovereign LORD. ³¹ You are my sheep, the sheep of my pasture, and I am your God, declares the Sovereign LORD.’”

Oh, Jeremiah 33 too!