Every time this song comes on Pandora, I have to stop and listen. It causes me to praise God, how he loves us with a sort of love we would never understand apart from him. My heart jumps inside me as it longs for that day heaven meets earth! The Lord grabs my heart through the lyrics, and I just want to share it with you. Take a moment to stop and listen, and praise God.
He is jealous for me,
Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.
When all of a sudden,
I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,
And I realize just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me.
And oh, how He loves us so,
Oh how He loves us,
How He loves us all
Yeah, He loves us,
Oh! how He loves us,
Oh! how He loves us,
Oh! how He loves.
We are His portion and He is our prize,
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes,
If His grace is an ocean, we're all sinking.
And Heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss,
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest,
I don't have time to maintain these regrets,
When I think about, the way
Monday, November 15, 2010
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
What Makes a House a Home
In all my life I never thought I would be living in a house with 8 people. I grew up with an older brother, but he moved out when I was only in 8th grade. After that, it was just me and my mom until I went off to college and shared a tiny dorm room with a different girl for 4 years on campus. Then I moved into an apartment with 4 other girls, hoping to experience community that I'd heard about from friends or read about in Acts. Unfortunately, it just didn't happen.
When I was told that I would be living with 7 roommates (two of whom are my bosses!), I was nervous. I am definitely an introvert, being recharged by time alone and reflection, so the thought of not only sharing a room with someone else (and for a while it looked li
ke there was going to be 4 of us in one room!), but knowing that there would almost always be someone home, didn't really excite me. In fact, I wasn't looking forward to it.
But one thing I have been learning in this season is how awesome and full of surprises the Lord is! His plans are so far beyond mine, sometimes I wonder why I even bother planning at all! Living in a community of people who are loving, encouraging, uplifting, and genuinely interested and concerned for you is so amazing. I love each of my roommates so much! Honestly, it's been so encouraging to gain a better understanding of what the author was writing about in Acts about the early church:
perience in humility, service, love and grace. We all left so much behind for this. Taking 8 people and all their things and putting them together in one house, there were many sacrifices we each had to make, but I don't regret it for a second. What I have gained is so much greater. We share stories, encourage each other when we're struggling, hold one another accountable, and give hugs when they're needed! One of my favorite things is when we somehow all manage to gather around the table together for a meal. With such busy and conflicting schedules, it really is a special time! I can speak from my own experience, it sure does make my heart glad and sincere and obviously causes me to praise God and enjoy these people!
Even closer still is my roommate, Lauren. Oh what a blessing it has been to share a room with her. I have never loved having a roommate before, but I do now! It's honestly weird when she's not home. I can't fall asleep! We share life, secrets, and funny stories. I have lost count of all the times we have almost died from laughing so hard! And we are so similar it's crazy how God has brought us together. We're both introverts, so at night it's just comforting to know she's on the bunk below me, reading as well. Or to encourage one another when we're believing lies about ourselves. Or on our days off, to have someone else with whom to indulge in my guilty pleasure: ice cream and America's Next Top Model :) I love her!
So what makes a house a home? I haven't felt this way in a long time, and it is so refreshing. I think above all else, what makes a house a place you can call home is that you look forward to walking in the door, knowing that you are about to walk into an environment of love and support. I have that here, and I am so thankful for it.
That's all for now! Thanks for reading!
When I was told that I would be living with 7 roommates (two of whom are my bosses!), I was nervous. I am definitely an introvert, being recharged by time alone and reflection, so the thought of not only sharing a room with someone else (and for a while it looked li
ke there was going to be 4 of us in one room!), but knowing that there would almost always be someone home, didn't really excite me. In fact, I wasn't looking forward to it.But one thing I have been learning in this season is how awesome and full of surprises the Lord is! His plans are so far beyond mine, sometimes I wonder why I even bother planning at all! Living in a community of people who are loving, encouraging, uplifting, and genuinely interested and concerned for you is so amazing. I love each of my roommates so much! Honestly, it's been so encouraging to gain a better understanding of what the author was writing about in Acts about the early church:
"All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved."We share just about everything! From food to bills, living space to chores, having everything in common actually is a learning ex
~Acts 2:44-47
perience in humility, service, love and grace. We all left so much behind for this. Taking 8 people and all their things and putting them together in one house, there were many sacrifices we each had to make, but I don't regret it for a second. What I have gained is so much greater. We share stories, encourage each other when we're struggling, hold one another accountable, and give hugs when they're needed! One of my favorite things is when we somehow all manage to gather around the table together for a meal. With such busy and conflicting schedules, it really is a special time! I can speak from my own experience, it sure does make my heart glad and sincere and obviously causes me to praise God and enjoy these people!
Even closer still is my roommate, Lauren. Oh what a blessing it has been to share a room with her. I have never loved having a roommate before, but I do now! It's honestly weird when she's not home. I can't fall asleep! We share life, secrets, and funny stories. I have lost count of all the times we have almost died from laughing so hard! And we are so similar it's crazy how God has brought us together. We're both introverts, so at night it's just comforting to know she's on the bunk below me, reading as well. Or to encourage one another when we're believing lies about ourselves. Or on our days off, to have someone else with whom to indulge in my guilty pleasure: ice cream and America's Next Top Model :) I love her!
So what makes a house a home? I haven't felt this way in a long time, and it is so refreshing. I think above all else, what makes a house a place you can call home is that you look forward to walking in the door, knowing that you are about to walk into an environment of love and support. I have that here, and I am so thankful for it.
That's all for now! Thanks for reading!
Monday, November 1, 2010
Ministry of Reconciliation
A couple weeks ago as I was reading through Romans, the concept of reconciliation had been on my heart (now I'm beginning to understand why), so I spent my extawG reading about it. So what exactly is reconciliation?
I kept seeing it come up in the Scripture God was bringing me to, especially as we studied Genesis 1-3 as a staff team, I saw our desperate need to be reconciled to God. So let's go back to the beginning. These first three chapters of Genesis paint the picture of who God is, his desire for relationship with us, man's freedom to choose, Satan's craftiness, man's disobedience, and the entrance of sin and separation from God.
It wasn't meant to be this way! God created all that is good, and he created man for a relationship with Himself. In his love, he created man with the freedom to choose, for what kind of love forces or controls? He gave us the ability to choose to love him in return. But when man chose not to listen to God, to disobey his command, he chose not to love God:"Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me." John 14:21
With this choice, our relationship with God forever changed. Sin entered and separated us from an intimate relationship with our Creator. Instead of becoming like God (Satan's lie- Genesis 3:5), we became unlike him: sinful and unholy. There was a sudden and obvious difference, thus creating a need for reconciliation.
It is there in the Garden this drama begins to unfold. All along God knew this would happen if he created man with the freedom to choose. But because he is loving, he did. And because of this great love, he made a way to restore our relationship to reconcile us to him. We had no power to make right this union, so he took it upon himself to do it- that's how much he desires us! Again, this thought hits me: Perhaps God created us just so he could save us! So how was this done? How was reconciliation between God and man made possible? We were in opposition with God; his enemies. We needed a neutral party, a mediator to help us make right this special relationship. Enter Christ:
So we now have a third party, neutral, both God and man, to bring reconciliation. And I find myself still in Romans 5, where Paul writes about this. We see in I Timothy 2:3 that God desires all men to be saved; and it is through Christ this is made possible.
Paul concludes this thought:
Reconciliation: "to make oneself or another no longer opposed; to become friendly with someone after estrangement or to re-establish friendly relations between; to settle a quarrel or difference; to make two apparently conflicting things compatible or consistent with each other; to bring together again."
I kept seeing it come up in the Scripture God was bringing me to, especially as we studied Genesis 1-3 as a staff team, I saw our desperate need to be reconciled to God. So let's go back to the beginning. These first three chapters of Genesis paint the picture of who God is, his desire for relationship with us, man's freedom to choose, Satan's craftiness, man's disobedience, and the entrance of sin and separation from God.
It wasn't meant to be this way! God created all that is good, and he created man for a relationship with Himself. In his love, he created man with the freedom to choose, for what kind of love forces or controls? He gave us the ability to choose to love him in return. But when man chose not to listen to God, to disobey his command, he chose not to love God:"Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me." John 14:21
With this choice, our relationship with God forever changed. Sin entered and separated us from an intimate relationship with our Creator. Instead of becoming like God (Satan's lie- Genesis 3:5), we became unlike him: sinful and unholy. There was a sudden and obvious difference, thus creating a need for reconciliation.
It is there in the Garden this drama begins to unfold. All along God knew this would happen if he created man with the freedom to choose. But because he is loving, he did. And because of this great love, he made a way to restore our relationship to reconcile us to him. We had no power to make right this union, so he took it upon himself to do it- that's how much he desires us! Again, this thought hits me: Perhaps God created us just so he could save us! So how was this done? How was reconciliation between God and man made possible? We were in opposition with God; his enemies. We needed a neutral party, a mediator to help us make right this special relationship. Enter Christ:
"This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all people. This has now been witnessed to at the proper time."
~I Timothy 2:3-6
So we now have a third party, neutral, both God and man, to bring reconciliation. And I find myself still in Romans 5, where Paul writes about this. We see in I Timothy 2:3 that God desires all men to be saved; and it is through Christ this is made possible.
So what does this say? We were God's enemies, in opposition with him because of our sin, but there has been reconciliation through Christ's sacrifice: his death. What's more than this, not only is our relationship with God set right again, we are saved because he lives to intercede for us!
"Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation."
~Romans 5:9-11
"Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them."We can now rejoice because we have been forgiven, justified, saved and reconciled! Praise the Lord! On top of that, it doesn't end here- the drama continues! Once we ourselves have been reconciled to God, we are called to join with him in helping others find reconciliation through Jesus as well. Paul writes of this Ministry of Reconciliation in II Corinthians 5. He begins:
~Hebrews 7:25
"Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men."We have our testimony, which is powerful ("They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony" Revelation 12:11), to help convince others of their need for reconciliation, and the Mediator who makes it possible. Christ's love compels us (II Corinthians 5:14) to share. God chooses men to join with him in this ministry. Wow. What a ministry! This awaits on campus! Oh how I love these freshmen girls! This ministry is a gift. Paul writes,
~II Corinthians 5:11
"All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God."So God has given this ministry to us! He calls us to join with him to tell others that he has done all that is necessary to reconcile the whole world, all men, to himself- through Christ. Our sins are not held against us; they are forgiven. We are messengers, Christ's ambassadors, his representatives. God is making his appeal through us, as if to say, "Look what I've done! Look how I have changed this life, how I have set our relationship right. I can do that with you too, if you'd let me." It is our ministry to share this, but it is God's to change hearts.
~II Corinthians 5:18-20
Paul concludes this thought:
"As God’s co-workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain. For he says,“In the time of my favor I heard you,
and in the day of salvation I helped you.”I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation"
~II Corinthians 6:1-2
I love that God considers me his fellow worker. What he has been at work doing since before the creation of the world, man, even time, he invites me, all of us, to join in to help others accept this reconciliation, this favor, this salvation. Because it is now! Today is the day of salvation! Be reconciled to God.
Reconciliation doesn't end here either. I've also begun to see that this is God's desire for all relationships! He intends all relationships to be made right. Relationships only bring glory to him when there is peace, when they have been reconciled. That I am still processing. Stay tuned.
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