A Force to Be Reckoned With! Amen!

How incredible is God?!? Seriously! Viewing the bible as a whole and seeing--what I feel like is for the first time--the story of Jesus' life and God's plan and purpose from Genesis to Revelation!

Jesus was an extraordinary man! Even those who don't believe in God think so! Everything He said seems to carry some profoundly deep and vital and compelling meaning to it. I've been thinking of those beckoning 3 words he says to ordinary people like you and me, "Come follow me"! I am understanding more and more the deeper implications of those words. In the gospels, Jesus is unpredictable! His disciples didn't know what was going on half the time, but they were so devoted to Him, placing their trust in Him and the promises of God. He was unpredictable, but real with people. He is serious about justice, but serious about love--even to death-on a cross! Everything about Him is rooted in deep passion for seeing God glorified through worship.

I'm learning that missions isn't so much about a task, as it is worship! It's about people from every tribe and language and nation worshiping God! And missions is proclaiming the good news of the coming of God's everlasting reign on earth and salvation to those who trust and follow Christ's lead. It's the pouring out of their lives like He did into the lives of others who will do the same! It's working as a whole world-wide body of believers, fulfilling by the power of God what Christ began as His Spirit so powerfully works within and through us--until there are people from among all people groups worshiping God!

It is invariably more vital and glorifying to God to allow Him to pursue me in a love relationship that is real and personal than anything else in the world! Because my passions will be parallel to His and because I love Him, I will obey His commands and everything else will come. Like Paul I'd choose passion and base every decision on God's glory instead of mine. If I even had an ounce of Paul's passion! Whew! He was a force to be reckoned with!

One thing that so astounds me is that God even allows us the privelage to work alongside Him. Jesus saw where God was working and came as a suffering servant in love to do the Father's will. I also have the privelage of prayer! I'm becoming more and more convicted of the power of prayer to rebell against the evil that blinds eyes to the light of the gospel. I'm learning that prayer is key; to evangelism, to worship, to relationship, to seeing God move. Laboring in prayer can even be a privelage of sharing in Christ's sufferings for God's glory...

Sacrifice is never easy. This summer I gave 2 months of my life to God. It's amazing how He works in your life when you humbly give Him what you have! But He seems to be asking me, or rather beckoning, "Would you give a lifetime? Would you trust me with your whole life?" Even though I know this is just the beginning and let's be real, there will be hard times ahead no matter what, everything in my heart wants to say, "Yes, Lord!" because of the surpassing joy of knowing Christ! I'm so eager to see what else the Lord has in mind this summer because so far He has positively blown me away!